Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Alex Traiman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Israeli and foreign media in Jerusalem, March 19, 2026
(JNS) — The United States and Israel are devastating the Iranian regime in their joint military campaign that began on Feb. 28., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Mar 19.
“Israel has never been stronger and Iran has never been weaker,” Netanyahu said in an address to the nation. “We are winning and Iran is being decimated. Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed.
“After 20 days, I can tell you: Iran today has no ability to enrich uranium, and no ability to produce ballistic missiles,” he added.
In response to a question from JNS, Netanyahu said Israel had accomplished a great deal in its ongoing battle against Hezbollah, noting, “We knocked them back,” but declined to give details regarding the IDF’s current ground incursion into Lebanon.
“I can’t divulge our battle plans and obviously, Hezbollah is not what Hezbollah had been,” he said, adding, “And we have plans for the future. Obviously, our number one effort is geared toward Iran, but if the regime goes, you know that Hezbollah goes. In any case, we’re devising our plans in such a way that we could remove this threat as well.”
In his first press conference since the start of the war, the prime minister spoke in Hebrew, then English, answering questions in English from the media after his opening remarks, shared in a video posted on social media by the Government Press Office.
Bypassing the Strait of Hormuz
Netanyahu accused Tehran of seeking to disrupt global shipping routes. “Israel is helping in its own way, in intel and other means, the American effort to open the Strait of Hormuz,” he noted.
The prime minister called for the construction of oil and gas pipelines to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, “going west through the Arabian Peninsula right up to Israel, right up to our Mediterranean ports, and you’ve just done away with the chokepoints forever.”
Declaring this vision “definitely possible,” he added, “I see that as a real change that will follow this war, but I also see this war ending a lot faster than people think.”
The prime minister warned that Iran’s actions extended beyond Israel and the United States, describing a broader regional and global threat. “Today, the ayatollah regime is not only attacking America, not only attacking Israel, not only attacking the Iranian people. It is attacking the entire Middle East and beyond,” Netanyahu said, citing Iranian attacks on U.S. assets and allies across the region.
“They’ve attacked civilians and Americans and American assets in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and they’ve even attacked — through their proxies — Cyprus in Europe.”
Warning of the dire consequences for countries in the region and the world if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, he said, “Just imagine what they would do … if these lunatics had nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to every American city and every European city. This is a danger for the entire world. It’s certainly a danger for Israel. It’s certainly a danger for America.”
He revealed that although the campaign against Iran has already dealt significant blows to Iran’s military capabilities, the focus has expanded beyond immediate threats to long-term capabilities.
The Israeli leader stressed that Jerusalem and Washington are operating in “close coordination” against the Iranian regime as the war enters a critical phase.
The prime minister outlined three primary objectives of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation: “One, removing the nuclear threat. Second, removing the ballistic missile threat and removing both of these threats before they’re buried deep underground and become immune from aerial attack; and third, this means creating the conditions for the Iranian people to grasp their freedom, to control their destiny.”
He praised American leaders, led by President Donald Trump, for conducting this military campaign. “The world owes a debt of deep indebtedness … to President Trump for leading this effort to safeguard our future.”
