Netanyahu says Iran conflict won’t be ‘endless war’

The Middle East conflict triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran won’t be “an endless war,” but could take “time,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Monday.

People inspect the rubble of a collapsed building near Ferdowsi square in Tehran on March 3, 2026. The United States and Israel started striking Iran on February 28, killing Iran’s supreme leader and top military leaders, and prompting authorities to retaliate with strikes on Israel and across the Gulf. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu also claimed Israel and the United States had to act because Iran had been building new nuclear weapon sites that would have been impossible to attack within months.

“You’re not going to have an endless war,” Netanyahu said. “This is going to be a quick and decisive action.”

He later qualified that the conflict “may take some time, but it’s not going to take years.”

Netanyahu alleged that Iran had been working on new weapons sites since the so‑called 12‑day war in June, when Israel and the United States also launched coordinated strikes on the Islamic republic.

“They started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile programs and their atomic bomb programs immune within months,” the veteran Israeli leader said.

“If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future.”

US President Donald Trump’s estimates on the length of the regional war have vacillated, but his current estimate is it could go on for more than four weeks.