Tel Aviv, Jun 16: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made explosive claims that Iran had targeted US President Donald Trump for assassination due to his strong opposition to its nuclear ambitions.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Netanyahu described Trump as Tehran's "enemy number one" and accused Iran of actively plotting his elimination.

"They want to kill him. He's enemy number one," Netanyahu stated.

"He's a decisive leader. He never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak, giving them basically a pathway to enrich uranium, which means a pathway to the bomb, padding it with billions and billions of dollars."

Netanyahu praised Trump's record on Iran, highlighting key decisions such as the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

"He took up this fake agreement and basically tore it up. He killed Qasem Soleimani. He made it very clear, including now, 'You cannot have a nuclear weapon, which means you cannot enrich uranium.' He's been very forceful, so for them, he's enemy number one," the Israeli President said.

He also revealed that he himself was targeted by Iranian aggression. "They fired a missile right into the bedroom window of my home," Netanyahu said, claiming that the attack was part of Tehran's broader campaign against leaders opposed to its nuclear program.

He described himself as Trump's "junior partner" in efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu warned that Israel was facing an "imminent threat" from Iran, necessitating urgent and decisive military action. "We were facing an imminent threat, a dual existential threat," he said.

"One, the threat of Iran rushing to weaponise their enriched uranium to make atomic bombs with a specific and declared intent to destroy us. Second, a rush to increase their ballistic missile arsenal to a capacity of 3,600 weapons a year.... Within three years, 10,000 ballistic missiles, each weighing a ton, coming in at Mach 6, right into our cities, as you saw today... and then in 26 years, 20,000 (missiles). No country can sustain that, and certainly not a country the size of Israel, so we had to act," he said.

Netanyahu reiterated that Israel's military actions were aimed not only at ensuring its own survival but also at protecting global security. He insisted that diplomacy with Iran had failed and that Israel had been left with no other option.

Iran, in turn, launched a large-scale ballistic missile assault on Israeli cities, though many projectiles were intercepted or neutralised before impact.

He said the latest Israeli strikes, part of what has been dubbed Operation Rising Lion, had significantly disrupted Iran's nuclear progress.

"We've set back the Iranian nuclear program quite a bit," Netanyahu claimed. "Negotiations with the terrorism-sponsoring regime are clearly going nowhere."

He emphasised Israel's preparedness to take further action to eliminate the threats posed by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Netanyahu described Operation Rising Lion as "one of the greatest military operations in history."

Addressing the people of Iran, Netanyahu expressed sympathy for those living under the current regime.

"You've been oppressed for 50 years by the same Islamic regime that has long threatened to destroy the State of Israel," he said, pointing to the regime's aggressive posture as a justification for Israel's actions.

(IANS)

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