Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday night that Israel’s recent military campaign against Iran significantly damaged Tehran’s nuclear program, delaying its progress by “years” and averting an imminent nuclear threat.

Speaking at the conclusion of his second extended press conference of the evening, Netanyahu asserted that before the June conflict, Iran was “just months away” from acquiring nuclear weapons or completing key nuclear facilities.

“We have inflicted very significant damage, setting them back by years,” he said. “One can debate how many years, but… this has been pushed back.” Comparing Iran’s nuclear ambitions to a life-threatening illness, Netanyahu said, “This is like a person who removes cancer from his body — but when you remove cancer from your body, there can be metastases. It can come back. Only we knew that if we did not remove this cancer, we would die. And so we removed it.”

He warned that Iran will attempt to rebuild its program and stressed the need for constant vigilance.

“We are prepared for any scenario. The Iranians are also preparing for various scenarios — which I will not detail here.”

Earlier in the press conference, Netanyahu accused unnamed parties of trying to “downplay” Israel’s achievements in the war, a remark likely aimed at recent reports citing U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran’s nuclear program had only been delayed by months, not years.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)