Action against Iran’s nuclear program planned in 2024

Israeli PM Benjamin Netabnyahu addressed the Israeli citizens in a pre-recorded statement regarding the Israeli strike on Iran. Netanyahu stated that although the strike was ‘a very successful opening strike’, people need to remain on high alert and prepare for the possible counterstrikes, Reuters reports.

“Why now? So it’s not really ‘now’ now — it’s actually a directive I gave to the top security echelon over half a year ago, in November 2024. I have it here — a directive to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. This directive came shortly after the assassination of Nasrallah. It was clear to me, and to others, that with his elimination and the breaking of the Iranian axis — which was one of the foundations for the destruction of Israel — Iran would quickly advance its nuclear program. And that’s exactly what it did.

It moved forward with clear steps that we identified — weaponization, meaning the creation of actual nuclear weapons. Not just fissile material, but the critical and necessary step — building a weapons system for that fissile material. There was a need to act. I set the execution date for the end of April 2025. For various reasons, it couldn’t happen exactly on that date. The precise date was determined based on the IDF’s recommendation, in consultation with the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defence — we set it for the date we chose.

So first of all, it didn’t happen by chance, and it wasn’t for trivial reasons. It happened for a clear reason. As I said in the meeting with the top security officials — I said that if the Iranians obtain nuclear weapons, we simply won’t be here. We won’t exist here. That’s why it was the first target. It wasn’t the only target — because at the same time, they were also advancing their ballistic missile program. After we disrupted the pace of development and recovery of that system in our strike on Iran, they also rushed to accelerate it — aiming to establish a system capable of producing 300 ballistic missiles per month. That too, we addressed,” Netanyahu stated.