Netanyahu says Israel close to meeting its goals in Iran

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(Reuters) -Israel is very close to completing its goal of removing the dual threats of Iran’s ballistic missiles and nuclear programme, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

He promised not to let Israel be dragged into a war of attrition but also said he would not end the Iran campaign prematurely.

“We won’t pursue our actions beyond what is needed to achieve them, but we also won’t finish too soon. When the objectives are achieved, then the operation is complete and the fighting will stop,” he told Israeli reporters.

“I have no doubt that this is a regime that wants to wipe us out, and that’s why we embarked on this operation to eliminate the two concrete threats to our existence: the nuclear threat, the ballistic missile threat. We are moving step by step towards achieving these goals. We are very, very close to completing them,” he said.

He said Iran’s Fordow nuclear site had been very badly damaged by U.S. bunker-buster bombs overnight but the extent of damage remained to be seen. Tehran has vowed to defend itself at all costs.

Asked about the whereabouts of Iran’s 60% enriched uranium, Netanyahu said: “We’ve been following that very closely. I can tell you that it’s an important component of a nuclear programme.

“It’s not the sole component. It’s not a sufficient component. But it is an important component and we have interesting intel on that, which you will excuse me if I don’t share with you,” he said.

At least until Israel’s first strikes against its enrichment installations on June 13, Iran was refining uranium to up to 60% purity, a short step from the roughly 90% that is bomb-grade and far higher than the 3.67% cap imposed by a 2015 nuclear deal, which Iran respected until the year after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out in 2018.

(Reporting by Howard Goller and Maayan LubellEditing by Giles Elgood)