Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Iran was trying to rebuild its nuclear capabilities damaged by Israeli and U.S. offensives, and warned that his government would act to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“President Trump announced tonight that Iran is trying to re-arm itself with nuclear weapons. That’s true,” Netanyahu said in a message from the Wall of Lamentation in Jerusalem, before the celebration of Rosh Hashaná. “As long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” he said.
The statement coincided with a new warning from U.S. President Donald Trump, who assured that Washington detected Iranian activity in Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility near the Natanz nuclear complex. Trump has threatened with new attacks if Tehran tries to regain capabilities related to its nuclear program.
The signal again places Iran’s nuclear program at the heart of the war that the United States and Israel are waging against the Islamic Republic. However, the claim that Tehran seeks to manufacture a nuclear weapon comes from the Israeli and U.S. governments and has not been publicly backed up independently.
Netanyahu argued that the June 2025 military operations and the joint offensive started on February 28, 2026 destroyed Iran’s immediate capacity to manufacture atomic bombs, although he acknowledged that that damage did not definitively eliminate the possibility of reconstructing the program.
“After we destroyed their immediate capacity to produce nuclear bombs, both in Operation Leo Ascendent and Operation Leo Rugent, they are trying again,” he said.
The question of how much has survived Iran’s nuclear program has accompanied military operations since the 2025 attacks. Prior to the February offensive this year, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi had pointed out that much of Iran’s enriched uranium remained intact after the 2025 bombings and that at that time there was no indication that Iran was developing a capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons.
That difference is relevant: having enriched uranium and nuclear infrastructure does not equate in itself to having made the decision to build a bomb. Tehran hasined for years that its program has peaceful purposes, while Israel and the United States believe that the infrastructure and levels of enrichment achieved could allow it to quickly advance towards a weapon.
The February 2026 offensive occurred after the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025. The United States and Israel then justified the new attacks by the need to prevent the restoration of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Before this offensive, there was still a diplomatic route. Washington and Tehran had held indirect talks mediated by Oman and, just two days before the February 28 attacks, mediators assured that significant progress had been made.
The Israeli prime minister linked the nuclear threat to operations against Tehran’s regional allies. “At the same time, we are hitting the Iranian axis, not only very hard in the Gaza Strip, but also in Lebanon,” he said.
Netanyahu mentioned Israeli operations in southern Lebanon and, in particular, the cradle of Ali al-Taher. On Thursday, the Israeli Army that it destroyed there a more than two-kilometer underground Hezbollah complex, which, according to Israeli forces, contained command centers, weapons deposits, rockets, drones and explosives.
The message also has an internal political component. Israel will hold national elections on October 27th, and Netanyahu has made security and his actions against Iran central to his campaign. The prime minister had already assured in August that, “with or without an agreement,” it would prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
