Israeli Prime Minister told FOX News in an interview Sunday that they have set back the Iranian nuclear program “quite a bit.”

BRET BAIER: Do you have any estimate of how much you’ve set back Iran’s nuclear program? BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: I think that we set them back quite a bit. They were completely surprised, and surprise is a great element of success. Remember-that is part of the breaking of the Iranian axis. We achieved that with surprise, and I think we achieved a great surprise the other day when we started. We could wait and wait and wait, and string along the negotiations. But we gave them a chance-I gave them a chance. But it was clear they were not serious about it. It became clear, I think, to the United States as well, because the President was very clear. He said they could not have nuclear weapons. And in order not to have nuclear weapons, you cannot have enriched uranium. They basically strung everybody along. It was clear to us it was going nowhere. I could wait and wait and wait until they officially declared the talks were off and we officially declared we were going to attack. That’s not how I conduct a war. It’s not how Israel conducts wars. So we are geared to do whatever is necessary to achieve our dual aim: to remove two existential threats-the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat. We are doing that as we speak. But we are not bombing the population. We are telling the population: leave. So when we hit the targets embedded in civilian areas, you will not be hurt. There is now a mass migration from Tehran. That’s what’s happening, because we are giving them forewarning. BRET BAIER: What portion of Iranian air defenses do you think you’ve taken out? Back in October, the air defenses were decimated. Now you say you have kind of control of the skies as you are picking these targets. Yet, these missiles and drones are still coming your way-as they attack, as you point out, civilian areas inside Israel. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: You are right. First of all, we are doing a lot to prevent a lot of them from coming in. But you are quite right. When I say we have control of the skies-correctly said-they had very dense anti-aircraft batteries between the western border of Iran and Tehran. They were basically incredible. There’s no other way to describe it. Incredible intel. They did wonderful work to peel off the layers of protection that they had, and our pilots took them out. And so we have a free highway to Tehran, and we can pick off the targets we need in Tehran and other places without having our planes shot down. So far, none of them have been shot down-and I hope that continues. We are absolutely resolute to remove this threat. This is what you have to do when you stand at the brink of catastrophe. And I think it’s not just our test. Churchill talked about the slumber of democracies. He said democracies tend to sleep until the jarring gong of danger wakes them up. Sometimes it might not wake them up. Certainly we did not need a wake-up call. I’ve been talking about this threat for 40 years-three or four years after the Iranian regime, the totalitarian regime, hijacked Iran and its people. I said the greatest threat facing Israel, and potentially the world, is this regime trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons. I have devoted a considerable part of my life-in fact, most of my life-to preventing that. When the gong of danger sounds, and you know it’s the last moment-it’s the twelfth hour-you’ve got to act. That’s what responsible leaders do. And what I want, what I seek, is that the entire world will do what President Trump is doing. He’s standing up for good against evil. He’s standing up for right against wrong. He’s standing up for good against bad. I think that’s very admirable, and I salute him-President Trump. BRET BAIER: The President is also calling for Iran to get back to the negotiating table. You don’t seem to think that is worth it. How does this end? BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: I said it is worth it-if they will do what the President wants, and that is: eliminate their enrichment capacity. That’s a lot better than my country, my forces, my brave pilots having to do it. It’s much better if operatives on the ground do it. If they don’t do it-and they certainly did not want to do it, that became very clear-we do not wait until we have a nuclear holocaust. That is not going to happen. BRET BAIER: How does it end? BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: It will end when we remove capacities. BRET BAIER: You stopped short of killing Iran’s civilian leaders-military commanders, nuclear scientists-but not the Supreme Leader. There is a Reuters report saying President Trump, in the last couple of days, vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader, according to two U.S. officials. Is that true? BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: There’s so much falsehood-I’m not going to get into that. I can tell you: I think we do what we need to do. We will do what we need to do. And the United States knows what is good for the United States. And I’m just not going to get into it. BRET BAIER: Iran’s Foreign Minister today told reporters this: If Israel stops attacks on Iran, all responses will stop. The attack on Iran and the nuclear talks demonstrates the regime’s opposition to any form [of diplomacy]. The canceled talks were intended to take place today. He said at one point when he presented a counterproposal, that could have opened doors for an all-out agreement with the Americans. So again, the Foreign Minister says: if you stop, they will stop. What is your response to that? BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: First of all-that’s hogwash.

RealClearPolitics Videos