Hanegbi: Military force alone can’t destroy Iran’s nuke program; only Trump can compel Iran to abandon it; Iran’s political leaders won’t be targeted

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi tells Channel 12 that Israeli strikes alone won’t be capable of entirely destroying Iran’s nuclear program.

Hanegbi says the overall goal of Israel’s campaign, rather, is to pressure Iran militarily into agreeing to completely dismantle its nuclear program.

Earlier today, US President Donald Trump said that Iran still has another chance to strike a nuclear deal after Israel launched its ongoing attack.

Hanegbi also says that Israel does not intend to target Iran’s “political leadership” in this campaign.

Hanegbi specifies that the goals of the ongoing operation, as approved by the cabinet, against Iran are four-fold: striking Iran’s nuclear program, striking its ballistic missile capabilities; attacking its capacity to destroy Israel via a ground attack; and creating the conditions for the long-term thwarting of Iran’s nuclear program via diplomatic means.

Asked if this means that Israel does not have the goal of “the IDF destroying Iran’s nuclear program,” Hanegbi replies: “That’s not possible. It cannot be done via kinetic means.”

What is possible, he says, is a solution such as played out in Libya, South Africa and elsewhere, where “the balance of pros and cons” leads the leadership of a state to abandon its nuclear weapons efforts.

“Only the Americans can bring that about,” he says. “Only President Trump. He is capable of bringing about what is described as ‘a good deal’ — the model under which Iran, by its choice, gives up on nuclear weapons, pays considerable costs, gets lots of benefits… That’s the diplomatic expectation…”

Hanegbi confirms that the US knew ahead of time about the Israeli strikes. During the entire period since Trump returned to office, he says, “there has not been a day without high-level diplomatic discussions” involving Prime Minister Netanyahu, Minister Ron Dermer and/or himself and the US leadership, including Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

The talk of a crisis in the ties was “inaccurate,” he says. “Today, too, they want a diplomatic agreement.” But at a certain stage, “they understood, as we had understood earlier, that an agreement could not [yet] be attained” with the Iranians.

After referring to Iranian military commanders targeted in the strikes so far, Hanegbi stresses that Israel does not intend to target Iran’s “political leadership” in this campaign.

Asked if Israel has ground forces inside Iran, he says guardedly, “There is fighting in Iran not only involving the Air Force and the Navy.”

He says the campaign is at “the beginning of the beginning,” that Israel’s “ambitious goals” will not be realized quickly, and expects that Iran will continue to retaliate.

He says cabinet ministers, asked to approve the operation last night, and with time short, agreed not to make speeches. Netanyahu told them there were only a few minutes before the need to give the order to scramble the air force, Hanegbi says, and simply asked if anyone was opposed. “Nobody was opposed.”