Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is prepared for the possibility that fighting with Iran could resume, as it continues operations against Hezbollah alongside newly launched talks with Lebanon.
“Our American allies are keeping us constantly updated on their contacts with Iran,” Netanyahu says in a video message, released amid continued American efforts to reach a deal with Tehran and reported US pressure for Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
“Our objectives with the United States are aligned,” Netanyahu continues. “We want to see Iran’s enriched material removed, and we want to see the elimination of its enrichment capability inside Iran. And of course, we want to see the reopening of [key shipping] straits,” he says.
“It is too early to say how this will end, or even how it will progress. In light of the possibility that the war may resume, we are prepared for any scenario,” the premier says.
“In parallel” to fighting Hezbollah, “we are conducting negotiations with Lebanon, talks that…are happening now because we are very strong, and countries are approaching us – not just Lebanon,” Netanyahu says.
“In these negotiations, there are two main goals: first, to push Hezbollah away; and second, to achieve a sustainable peace – a peace through strength,” he adds.
“Our forces continue to strike Hezbollah,” Netanyahu says, saying the fighting is currently focused on dismantling a “major Hezbollah stronghold” in Bint Jbeil, and that he instructed the IDF yesterday “to continue reinforcing the security zone and to extend it eastward, toward the slopes of Mount Hermon,” in support of the Druze population there.
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