Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a clip that aired Sunday morning that the war in Iran is not yet over — and military forces may need to continue the battle on the ground.
“I think it accomplished a great deal, but it’s not over,” Netanyahu told CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett in his first U.S. broadcast television interview since the war with Iran began.
The preview of the interview, which will air in full Sunday evening, touched on Netanyahu’s belief that Iran still holds enriched uranium that must be removed, though he did not specify how that would happen.
“There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce,” Netanyahu said. “Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it. But all that is still there, and there’s work to be done.”
When pressed on how that could be accomplished, the prime minister laughed. “You go in, and you take it out,” he said.
“I’m not gonna talk about military means, but what President Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there.’ And I think it can be done physically. That’s not the problem. If you have an agreement, and you go in, and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way.”
The United States and Israel first launched attacks against Iran in February, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump initially gave varying estimates on the length of the war but at one point predicted the conflict to last four to five weeks. The war is now in its sixth week, and Trump vowed at the time to continue bombing the region until “PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” was achieved.
The U.S. has since moved into a ceasefire with Iran, and negotiations have sputtered along. However, Netanyahu refused to share how long the full operation could take.
“I’m not gonna give a timetable to it, but I’m gonna say that’s a terrifically important mission,” he said.
