Jerusalem, 3 March

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that Israel and the US struck Iran because Tehran had restarted its nuclear programme and it would have gone “immune within months.”

Netanyahu told Fox News early Tuesday that an attack against Iran was urgently needed because Tehran was building new underground sites to shield its missile and nuclear programmes from attacks.

“They started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile programme and their atomic bomb programme immune within months. If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future,” he said.

"The reason that we had to act now is that after we hit their nuclear sites and their ballistic missile programme (in the 12-day war last year in June)... they started building new sites...underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile programme and their atomic bomb programme immune within months," the Israeli Premier told the TV channel.

“If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future,” he stressed.

This is contrary to the claims made last year by Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.

The Israeli leader had said that Israel had “achieved a historic victory” over Iran that would “abide for generations” and Trump claimed that the Iranian nuclear programme had been totally "obliterated".

Critics, however, had started expressing doubts over the claims, saying that Iran may have moved and secured the enriched uranium in some other location before the bombings.

Netanyahu, in the interview, denied that the US and Israel were engaging in an “endless war” against Iran, insisting that the operation would end quickly.

“I hear people are telling you that you’re going to have an endless war here — You’re not going to have an endless war because... this terror regime in Iran is at its weakest point” since its founding, the Israeli Premier said.

“This is going to be a quick and decisive action,” he emphasised.

The Israeli Prime Minister also argued that the joint US and Israeli strikes would create the conditions for regime change in Iran.

Netanyahu also said that "95 per cent" of the problems in the Middle East are generated by Iran, and that the fall of the regime would lead to a flood of peace deals between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbours.

He stressed that the joint US-Israeli operations would “usher in an era of peace that we haven’t even dreamed of”.

Responding to accusations that Israel had dragged the US into the war, the Israeli leader debunked the criticisms.

“That’s ridiculous. Donald Trump is the strongest leader in the world. He does what he thinks is right for America. He also does what he thinks is right for future generations,” Netanyahu said, arguing that the US president understands the threats posed by the Islamic Republic.