Iran war ‘not over’, enriched uranium must be removed: Israeli PM Netanyahu

WASHINGTON - Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be “taken out” before the US-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an American broadcaster on May 10.

“It’s not over because there’s still nuclear material – enriched uranium – that has to be taken out of Iran. There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” Mr Netanyahu said in an interview due to air later on May 10 on CBS’ 60 Minutes programme.

“You go in and you take it out,” the Israeli leader said when asked how the uranium could be removed.

Mr Netanyahu said that US President Donald Trump had a similar position.

“I’m not going to talk about military means, but the President, what President Trump has said to me – ‘I want to go in there.’”

However, Mr Netanyahu’s statement contrasted with Mr Trump’s public position.

The 79-year-old Republican is under increasing domestic pressure to end the Iran war, and he insists that Tehran’s nuclear programme has been contained.

In an interview aired on May 10 but apparently recorded earlier, Mr Trump said Iran was “militarily defeated” and he insisted that the uranium could be removed “whenever we want”.

“We’ll get that at some point, whenever we want. We’ll have it surveilled,” he told independent television journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

“If anybody got near the place, we will know about it and we’ll blow them up.”

Asked by CBS how the uranium stockpiles could be taken out from Iran, Mr Netanyahu said he would prefer an agreement.

“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.”

Pressed on whether there are military options to seize the hidden uranium, Mr Netanyahu said he would not discuss such possibilities – or a timetable.

Israel remains a dedicated American ally, but Mr Netanyahu said he has told Mr Trump that he wants US tax dollars committed to Israel, currently at US$3.8 billion (S$4.8 billion) annually, to drop to “zero” – and sooner rather than later.

“I think that it’s time that we wean ourselves from the remaining military support” from the Pentagon, he added. “Let’s start now, and do it over the next decade.”

In addition to the unresolved uranium stockpile issue, Mr Netanyahu said there were several other war aims that had yet to be accomplished.

“There’s still proxies that Iran supports, their ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there and there’s work to be done.”

Mr Netanyahu also acknowledged that he knew Beijing was assisting Iran.

“China gives a certain amount of support (to Iran), and particular components of missile manufacturing,” the Israeli leader noted. “But I can’t say more than that.”

He also spoke of optimism about how a toppled Iranian regime could mean “the end of Hezbollah”, as well as Hamas and the Houthis, “because the whole scaffolding of the terrorist proxy network that Iran built collapses if the regime in Iran collapses”.

But he stopped short of predicting such a downfall of Iran’s regime.

“Is it possible? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No.” AFP