By Rob Picheta, CNN
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: AFP / Oliver Contreras
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that he launched airstrikes against Iran to prevent "a nuclear holocaust," claiming his government had intelligence that Iran was months away from developing an initial nuclear weapon.
"We had to act," Netanyahu told Fox's Bret Baier on Sunday (local time). "It was the 12th hour, and we did act. To save ourselves but also … to protect the world from this incendiary regime."
"The intel we got and we shared with the United States was absolutely clear: That they were working in a secret plan to weaponize the uranium, they were marching very quickly, they would achieve a test device and possibly an initial device within months, and certainly less than a year," he said.
"That is something that we couldn't possibly accept," he continued. "We will not have a second holocaust, a nuclear holocaust. We already had one, in the previous century - the Jewish state is not going to have the holocaust committed on the Jewish people. It's not going to happen."
Netanyahu also claimed that Israel saw enough enriched uranium for nine bombs. "All they had to do was weaponize them. We stopped that."
Asked if regime change was among his objectives in Iran, Netanyahu said: "It could certainly be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak."
Netanyahu said "80 percent of the people would throw these theological thugs out."
"They shoot women because their hair is uncovered. They shoot students. They just suck the oxygen out from these brave and gifted people, the Iranian people."
"The decision to act, to rise up this time, is the decision of the Iranian people."
- CNN live coverage
