The Israeli Defence Forces are the only military forces in the world capable of taking on Iran in the event of war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
"At the moment, the only army in the world to fight Iran – this is the Israeli army," Netanyahu said, speaking to members of Israel's National Security College at his residence on Sunday, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The prime minister also recalled his role in fighting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saying the agreement would have only given Iran "hundreds of billions of dollars" to "invest in their empire" and "pave the way for [an Iranian] nuclear arsenal."
"I had to fight alone to block the nuclear agreement," Netanyahu said. "I had to fight against all the powers and against the president of the United States – I went to the US Congress."
"Today, you can judge whether we were right or not. So, first of all, you have to stop it," Netanyahu said.
According to the prime minister, "the only thing that the terrible nuclear deal gave" Israel was the "strong and sweeping rapprochement with major Arab countries," whom Iran also allegedly threatened with nuclear annihilation.
Netanyahu personally lobbied President Donald Trump to scrap the JCPOA, making a media presentation in 2018 based on information said to have been obtained by Israeli intelligence about Iran's alleged attempts to hide its nuclear activities from the world. Days after the presentation, Trump announced that the US would be withdrawing from the agreement.
Last week, after hearing that Tehran would soon surpass the uranium enrichment levels limit outlined by the JCPOA, Netanyahu said that the only possible reason for such an action was the creation of a nuclear bomb. He also compared Iran's enrichment activities to the actions of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Iran has denied having any intention to pursue nuclear weapons, saying Islam "never approves of weapons of mass destruction." Tehran has also recalled repeatedly that Israel has been the only state in the region with an actual nuclear weapons arsenal for many decades.