‘Crushed’: Netanyahu Says U.S.–Israel Campaign Destroyed Iran’s Nuclear, Missile Programs — Regime ‘Fighting to Survive’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night the joint U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran has delivered “historic achievements,” declaring it has succeeded in “crushing” the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

This outcome means Tehran is left “begging for a ceasefire” and at its weakest point since the 1979 Islamic Revolution after reaching “a situation where Iran does not have a single active enrichment facility,” as U.S. negotiators walked away from talks in Pakistan, he continued.

Netanyahu said the joint campaign has fulfilled its core objectives — dismantling Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and significantly weakening the regime itself.

“We have succeeded in crushing the nuclear program and crushing the missile program,” Netanyahu said in a televised address, adding that Iran “no longer has a single functioning enrichment facility” after sustained U.S.-Israeli strikes dismantled its nuclear infrastructure. He added that most of Iran’s missile production capability has “vanished,” with remaining stockpiles “running dry.”

Framing the outcome in broader ideological and strategic terms, Netanyahu said Iran’s leadership had spent decades operationalizing its threats against Israel and the United States — backing proxy forces across the region while advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities.

“They wanted to strangle us, and now we are strangling them. They threatened us with annihilation — and now they are fighting for survival,” he said.

Netanyahu described the outcome as a historic strategic reversal, arguing that Iran’s long-running effort to encircle Israel and threaten U.S. and allied interests has been decisively rolled back, with the regime now “begging for a ceasefire.”

He said the campaign reflects two phases of sustained military action against Iran — beginning with Israel’s June 2025 12-day war that culminated in U.S. strikes on three key nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer, and expanding into the current joint campaign launched February 28, known in Israel as Operation Roaring Lion and in the United States as Operation Epic Fury — arguing that without these combined operations, “Iran would already have atomic bombs.”

Netanyahu said the initial phase was launched after intelligence indicated Iran had begun moving toward weaponizing enriched uranium, prompting strikes that eliminated senior nuclear scientists, targeted nuclear facilities alongside U.S. forces, and destroyed missile stockpiles and launch systems — actions he said removed what he described as an immediate dual existential threat.

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He said that months later, new intelligence showed Iran’s leadership — under then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was later killed in the opening phase of the current campaign — had ordered the resumption and expansion of both nuclear and missile programs, moving them deep underground.

“He sought to bury both missile production and nuclear production deep, deep beneath a mountain, in a way that even B-2 aircraft could not reach,” Netanyahu said. “Once again, we could not stand by. We acted.”

Netanyahu said the current joint campaign systematically targeted nuclear facilities, missile infrastructure, weapons production sites, and senior leadership, resulting in what he described as the dismantling of core elements of the regime’s strategic capabilities.

He said the broader objective extended beyond military infrastructure to weakening the regime itself “to its lowest, weakest level” since its establishment in 1979.

“We made a huge change here,” Netanyahu said, pushing back on critics. “There are massive achievements here — this is a historic change,” he added, pointing to internal divisions within Iran’s leadership and growing difficulty in meeting domestic demands.

Netanyahu also highlighted what he described as an “unprecedented alliance” with the United States, saying coordination between Israeli forces and the U.S. military has reached levels “that never existed before.”

He said the impact is already reshaping the regional order, arguing that demonstrations of strength are shifting diplomatic dynamics.

“Power attracts,” Netanyahu said.

He pointed to Lebanon as a leading example, saying it has reached out “several times” in recent weeks to initiate direct peace talks — an unprecedented development — with discussions expected to center on dismantling Hezbollah.

“We want the dismantling of Hezbollah’s weapons, and we want a real peace agreement that will last for generations,” he said.

Netanyahu said the shift extends beyond Lebanon, with other countries in the Middle East and beyond increasingly seeking cooperation and alignment with Israel following the campaign.

At the same time, he emphasized that the campaign is not yet complete, warning that enriched nuclear material remains inside Iran and must still be addressed.

“There is still enriched material in Iran,” Netanyahu said. “Either it will be removed by agreement, or it will come out in other ways.”

The remarks came as U.S.-Iran negotiations in Islamabad collapsed after more than 20 hours of talks, with Vice President JD Vance announcing the American delegation would leave without an agreement after Tehran refused to meet U.S. demands.

“We have not reached an agreement,” Vance said. “And I think that’s bad news for Iran, much more than it is for the United States of America.”

Vance said Washington’s core requirement remains a “firm commitment” that Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon or retain the capability to rapidly do so.

President Donald Trump had defined a successful agreement ahead of the talks as preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“No nuclear weapons — that’s 99% of it,” Trump said.

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday that Iran has suffered a “generational military defeat,” with its four-decade buildup “crushed in under 40 days.”

CENTCOM said Saturday that U.S. naval forces have begun preparations to clear Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global energy corridor — as part of efforts to reopen the strategic waterway following its disruption during the conflict.

“Iran is no longer the same Iran — and Israel is no longer the same Israel,” Netanyahu said.