Israel not seeking endless war with Iran, foreign minister says

By Alexander Cornwell

JERUSALEM, March 10 (Reuters) – Israel is not seeking an endless war with Iran and will coordinate with the United States on when to end the fighting, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday, declining to publicly state a timeline for when the conflict could end.

Turmoil has spread throughout the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran 11 days ago, with Tehran carrying out attacks across the region in response, and fighting expanding to Lebanon where Israel is now battling Hezbollah.

Saar said Israel had achieved major successes in weakening Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and that when the time was right, Israel would consult with the U.S. on ending the war.

“We will continue until the minute that we, and our partners, think that is appropriate to stop,” he told reporters, speaking alongside his German counterpart in Jerusalem.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it had carried out a new wave of strikes in Tehran targeting what it described as “terror regime targets”, and reported Iranian missile launches toward Israel, a sign Tehran retained the ability to attack Israel.

WAR WON’T END THIS WEEK

President Donald Trump and his administration have offered mixed messages on when the war could end. Israel says it seeks to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

On Monday, Trump said that it would not end this week but that it could end very soon. Saar on Tuesday said Israel was not seeking an endless war and would consult with Washington on ending it when it was the “right time,” he said.

“We want to remove, for the long-term, existential threats from Iran to Israel,” Saar said in response to a Reuters question on how the government sees the war coming to an end.

He said there was an opportunity to create conditions that would allow Iranians to “regain their freedom” acknowledging that it may not happen during the war and could come afterward.

“We must not miss this opportunity with partial results,” he said, describing Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojataba Khamenei – son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed by the Israeli military on the first day of the war – as an extremist.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said earlier in Berlin that there appeared to be no plan to bring the war to a swift end.

ISRAEL URGES COUNTRIES TO CUT TIES WITH IRAN

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the first senior foreign official to publicly visit Israel since the war began, said he was confident Israel and Washington were open to a diplomatic solution that could lead to an end to the war.

But any such solution would need to include agreements with Iran on its nuclear and missile programs, as well as its support for regional militias, terms that Wadephul said Tehran had made clear that it was not currently prepared to accept.

Saar called for Iran to be diplomatically isolated, urging other countries to sever diplomatic relations with Tehran.

Israeli officials have long warned that Iran poses an existential threat. In June, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, igniting a 12-day war that ended abruptly after the U.S. joined the fighting and bombed key Iranian nuclear sites.

A source familiar with Israel’s war plans earlier told Reuters the country’s military wanted to inflict as much damage on Iran as possible before the window for further strikes closes, under the assumption Trump could end the war suddenly.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Philippa Fletcher and Cynthia Osterman)