- Netanyahu thinks ‘ground component’ in ongoing war
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pounded Tehran, the Iranian capital with airstrikes on Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that he did not ‘dragged’ United States President, Donald Trump into the war with Iran.
The IDF said in a brief statement on X: “The IDF has now begun a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran.”
AP reports quoted activists as saying they heard strikes around Iran’s capital in attacks that took place a day after Israel pledged to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field and Iran intensified attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf.
The strikes come as questions mount about how aligned the US and Israel are in their war aims, with Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that Israel had acted alone in the bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field. He also confirmed that Trump had asked Israel to hold off on such attacks.
Iran is being “decimated” and no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in the country would require a “ground component,” he said, without elaborating.
The Israeli Leader also rejected the notion that he had dragged Trump into the conflict, implying that he was the junior partner in the joint assault on Iran.
“Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” Netanyahu told reporters, at a press conference, adding: “He didn’t need any convincing. I don’t think any two leaders have been as coordinated as President Trump and I. He’s the leader. I’m, you know, his ally.”
Israeli prime minister says you can’t ‘do revolutions from the air’ and that ‘there has to be a ground component as well’ amid growing signs of tensions between Israel and US.
Also hinting at the possibility of a “ground component” to the US-Israel war on Iran, Netanyahu said “you can’t ‘do revolutions from the air” and that “there has to be a ground component as well”.
Amid growing signs of tensions between Israel and US, Netanyahu’s position sharply contrasts that of President Trump who has repeatedly suggested the US has no plans to put boots on the ground.
But speaking on Thursday about the latest development in Iran, the Israeli Prime Minister said: “You don’t want to replace one ayatollah with another,” adding that the Iranian regime was unlikely to be overthrown using air strikes alone.
It is “often said” that you can’t “do revolutions from the air”, Netanyahu told a press conference. “There has to be a ground component as well. There are many possibilities for this ground component and I take the liberty of not sharing [those] with you.”
Meanwhile, President Trump claimed there are no plans for the US to engage in such an operation. When asked about using ground troops, he told a reporter “I’m not putting troops anywhere”, but he added: “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”
However, he confirmed that the Pentagon has asked Congress to approve a further $200bn to fund the war, even as some 65 percent of Americans believe Trump will order troops into a large-scale ground war in Iran, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, but just 7% support that idea. – With agency reports
