(WASHINGTON) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday that targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would end, not escalate, the ongoing fight between Israel and Iran that erupted late last week.
When asked by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl about reports from ABC News and other outlets that President Donald Trump rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader, concerned that it would escalate the conflict, Netanyahu said, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”
“We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere,” Netanyahu said. “The ‘forever war’ is what Iran wants, and they’re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil.”
Asked if Israel would indeed target the supreme leader, Netanyahu said that Israel was “doing what we need to do.”
“I’m not going to get into the details, but we’ve targeted their top nuclear scientists,” Netanyahu told. “It’s basically Hitler’s nuclear team.”
Netanyahu said it in America’s interest to support Israel as it seeks to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.
“Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York. Look, I understand ‘America First’. I don’t understand ‘America Dead’. That’s what these people want. They chant ‘Death to America.’ So we’re doing something that is in the service of mankind, of humanity, and it’s a battle of good against evil. America does, should, and does stand with the good. That’s what President Trump is doing, And I deeply appreciate his support,” he told Karl.
Israel’s prime minister also dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that Iran has signaled to partners that it is seeking to end hostilities and resume negotiations over its nuclear program.
“I’m not surprised. I mean, they want to continue to have these fake talks in which they lie, they cheat, they string the U.S. along. And, you know, we have very solid Intel on that,” he said. “They want to keep on building their nuclear weapons and building their mass ballistic missile arsenal, which they’re firing at our people. They want to continue to create the two existential threats against Israel while they’re talking. That’s not going to happen.”
Asked to respond to some Republicans opposed to America’s military support for Israel’s strikes against Iran, including commentator Tucker Carlson, Netanyahu said Iran is a “threat to the entire world.”
“We’re not just fighting our enemy. We’re fighting your enemy. For God’s sake, they chant, “death to Israel, death to America.” We’re simply on their way. And this could reach America soon,” Netanyahu said.
In his Friday newsletter, Carlson wrote that “The United States should not at any level participate in a war with Iran. No funding, no American weapons, no troops on the ground,” and that the United States should let Israel ‘fight their own wars’.
“We’re taking the action. America is supporting us in defense. Deeply, deeply appreciated. But this is a threat to the entire world,” Netanyahu said. “It’s a threat to Israel; as I said — to our Arab neighbors; to Europe; to America. They chant ‘Death to America.’ It’s though — ‘This is not your business’? This is not myopia. This is utter blindness.”
“Sometimes you have to take a stand against evil. And that’s what the American people instinctively understand. Most of them, I have to say. And that’s what President Trump understands. We cannot let that happen,” he added.
In an updated travel advisory on Monday, the State Department appears to have classified all of Israel and the West Bank as “Level 4: Do Not Travel”—its highest advisory level.
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