Jerusalem, Amid growing resentment in Israel over the emerging deal between the United States and Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening defended his actions, emphasising that "Iran will not have nuclear weapons, with or without an agreement".
"Iran will never have nuclear weapons, not today and not tomorrow," Netanyahu asserted during a brief press conference in Hebrew.
"People ask me what we have achieved? And I answer them - What we have achieved? We removed the immediate threat of annihilation from ourselves. Most importantly, we saved the State of Israel from the threat of total destruction", the Israeli Premier said following a day of criticism from the opposition as well as coalition partners.
Assailing Netanyahu's leadership, former Prime Minister and prominent challenger for Prime Ministership Naftali Bennett earlier told the reporters that the term of this Netanyahu government began with a civil war, continued with the October 7 massacre, and is now ending with a historic failure against Iran.
Promising to "restore security for Israel," Bennett said that he would have done "everything" differently, including diplomatically by using his "credit with the President most sympathetic to Israel that we have ever had, solely for the benefit of Israel's national interests," in an apparent dig at Trump's repeated calls to pardon Netanyahu in his ongoing criminal trial.
{{/usCountry}}Promising to "restore security for Israel," Bennett said that he would have done "everything" differently, including diplomatically by using his "credit with the President most sympathetic to Israel that we have ever had, solely for the benefit of Israel's national interests," in an apparent dig at Trump's repeated calls to pardon Netanyahu in his ongoing criminal trial.
{{/usCountry}}National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that the agreement was "not binding" on Israel, among many others.
Responding to speculations of a "fallout" with the US President, Netanyahu said during the press conference, "There are times when President Trump and I don't see eye to eye. Israel's security interests need to be defended wisely."
He also ruled out withdrawing from South Lebanon, a matter many feel could derail the proposed deal, which calls for a total cessation of hostilities.
"We have established deep security zones around the State of Israel. We did this in Gaza, in Lebanon and in Syria, where we eliminated all of Assad's army weapons. I want to make it clear - we will remain in the security zones as long as necessary to protect our country," Netanyahu said.
"We beheaded the leaders of the terror regime, we crushed the terror factories," he said, adding, "You [Israelis] were all in terrible danger of death."
"We will stay in the Lebanon security buffer zone for as long as necessary," the Israeli leader stressed.
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