An Israeli politician has issued a chilling five-word warning to Iran as he argued stopping Teheran from expanding its nuclear programme is key to defeating terror organisations in the region.
Avigdor Lieberman, a member of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu faction of the Knesset, insisted Israel must use “all the means at our disposal” to stop Iran.
He argued victory over Hamas and Hezbollah would only be possible once Tehran is entirely prevented from adding to its nuclear arsenal.
In a chilling message on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Mr Lieberman said: “In this confrontation between Israel and the Axis of Evil, we must win, and without defeating Iran and eliminating its nuclear program, neither Hezbollah nor Hamas can be defeated.
“In order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme, which is already in the weapons stages, we must use all the means at our disposal.”
The politician did not expand on how Israel could target Iran’s nuclear programme but Tel Aviv previously said it would consider a military option should it become concerned about Teheran’s nuclear capabilities.
The comments come after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned Iran started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges and plans to install others after facing criticism over its nuclear programme.
Spinning up new centrifuges further advances its capabilities, which already include the enrichment of uranium at near-weapons-grade levels and boasts a stockpile enough for several nuclear bombs.
The acknowledgment from the IAEA did not include any suggestion Iran planned to go to higher enrichment levels amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip.
So far, Iran has been enriching uranium in those cascades up to 2 percent purity. Iran already enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Following the report Ali Shamkhani, a former top security official within Iran’s theocracy who still advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on X that Tehran remains committed to nuclear safeguards though it “won’t bow to pressure”.
He said: “The US and some Western countries would dismantle Iran’s nuclear industry if they could.”
Last month, the US, France, Britain, and Germany accused Iran of escalating its nuclear activities far beyond the limits it agreed to in a 2015 deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for the peaceful use of nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018. Trump said he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that didn’t happen.