Netanyahu: I Discussed the Necessity of 'Victory' Over the Islamic Republic with Trump

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, stated on Sunday, December 16, that in a phone conversation with Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States, he discussed Israel's determination to continue its confrontation with the Islamic Republic and its proxy groups. Netanyahu described his call with Trump regarding the necessity of a 'complete victory' for Israel as 'very friendly, very warm, and very important.' He further stated, 'We said we would change the Middle East, and that is exactly what is happening.' According to Netanyahu, 'Syria is no longer Syria. Lebanon is no longer Lebanon. Gaza is no longer Gaza. Iran is no longer Iran.' The Israeli Prime Minister emphasized, 'We are committed to preventing Hezbollah from rearming.' He called this issue 'an ongoing test' for Israel and stressed the importance of succeeding in it. Netanyahu continued, 'I say clearly to Hezbollah and Iran that in order to prevent you from harming us, we will continue to act against you, whenever and wherever necessary.' He identified the purpose of Israel's recent airstrikes on military facilities of the ousted Bashar al-Assad regime as preventing their potential use against Israel in the future, adding that these attacks also destroyed the military supply routes from the Iranian government to Hezbollah. Naim Qassem, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, also acknowledged on Saturday, December 15, that following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government, the supply route from Syria for this Iranian proxy group has been disrupted. In his first comments since the swift downfall of Assad's regime last week, Qassem admitted to the loss of the 'military supply route through Syria at this stage' and expressed hope that after the establishment of a new government in Syria, 'this route will return to normal.' Following the terrorist attack on October 7, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas and recovering kidnapped hostages, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Hamas fighters, including many of the group's leaders. Additionally, Hezbollah, which began unilateral attacks on Israel the day after this terrorist attack, suffered heavy losses, losing its Secretary-General, deputy secretaries-general, dozens of senior commanders, and thousands of fighters due to Israeli attacks. The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has directly attacked Israel twice in addition to arming its proxy groups, has lost a significant portion of its air defense capabilities and ballistic missile production capacity as a result of retaliatory Israeli strikes, making it, according to Israeli officials and military experts, very vulnerable to potential future Israeli attacks.