Netanyahu says Israel will continue to 'crush Iran's terror regime'

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday (Mar 31) that Israel would press ahead with its military campaign against Tehran, declaring that it would continue to "crush Iran's terror regime".

"The campaign is not over," he said in a televised statement. "We will continue to crush the terror regime."

Netanyahu's comments came shortly after Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country had the "necessary will" to end the war with Israel and the United States, but was seeking guarantees that the conflict would not be repeated.

In his statement, delivered on the eve of the Jewish Passover holidays, Netanyahu said: "We had to act, and we acted."

"We have remained steadfast in our mission and we have changed the face of the Middle East," he added, asserting that despite the ongoing war, Israel had emerged as a "regional power".

Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump launched a new war on Feb 28, killing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and setting off a wave of retaliatory attacks across the region.

Opposition leader and head of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, criticised Netanyahu and his speech.

"Netanyahu delivered for the thousandth time the arrogant speech that says, 'I changed the Middle East.'"

"You almost changed the Middle East; in the end it always turns out that it hasn't changed."