Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war with Iran cannot be considered over until Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is removed and its enrichment facilities are dismantled.
“It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material — enriched uranium — that has to be taken out of Iran,” Netanyahu said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
“There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” he added.
Asked how the uranium could be removed, Netanyahu said he would prefer a diplomatic agreement but insisted that the material must be taken out of Iran.
“If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way,” he said.
Netanyahu said US President Donald Trump shared his view that Iran’s nuclear programme remains unfinished business, though Trump has publicly maintained that Iran was “militarily defeated” and that the uranium could be removed “whenever we want.”
In an interview aired Sunday with journalist Sharyl Attkisson, Trump said the material would remain under surveillance and warned that any attempt to move it would trigger a military response.
The comments come as the United States and Iran remain deadlocked over a ceasefire proposal aimed at ending a conflict that began in February.
Netanyahu said other Israeli objectives also remain unresolved, including Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its support for regional armed groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
He also said he eventually wants U.S. military aid to Israel, currently worth $3.8 billion annually, to be phased out over the next decade.
The Israeli leader said weakening Iran could eventually lead to the collapse of the regional network of groups backed by Tehran, though he stopped short of predicting that Iran’s government would fall.
