During a special diplomatic briefing by the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs and Security (JCFA), former minister Prof. Yuval Steinitz presented a dramatic picture of the campaign against Iran and claimed that Israeli and American strikes severely damaged the Iranian nuclear program, production systems, and the regime’s military command system.

According to him, on the eve of the war, Iran was very close to a nuclear breakthrough. “We estimated that if Iran decided to race for the bomb, it would take them two to three months, maybe four months,” he said. “Today, after the damage to the facilities, laboratories, and key personnel, it will take them between two to four years to rebuild everything.”

Steinitz emphasized that the main goal of the war was to stop the nuclear program, not to change the regime in Tehran. “Without the nuclear threat, Israel would not have gone to war,” he said. However, he noted that the damage to the military leadership and Iranian infrastructure significantly weakened the regime.