By: Fern Sidman

In a dramatic and consequential interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed for the first time that Iran sought to assassinate President Donald Trump, identifying him as “enemy number one” of the Islamic Republic due to his uncompromising stance against Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. As World Israel News has reported, the revelation comes amid the ongoing Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s largest-ever military campaign inside Iran.

Speaking on a special Sunday edition of Special Report with Bret Baier, Netanyahu provided unprecedented detail about Iran’s strategic calculus, its hostility toward Trump, and the rationale behind Israel’s aggressive preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear and missile assets.

“They want to kill him,” Netanyahu said. “He’s enemy number one. He’s a decisive leader. He never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them weakly… He made it very clear, including now, ‘You cannot have a nuclear weapon, which means you cannot enrich uranium.’”

Netanyahu’s remarks drew attention to the depth of animosity Tehran holds toward Trump, who, as World Israel News highlighted, unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and orchestrated the targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.

The prime minister’s interview followed multiple reports from World Israel News and U.S. intelligence briefings confirming that the Biden administration had warned Trump of “real and specific threats” to his life, linked directly to Iranian operatives seeking revenge and deterrence.

The Iranian plot against Trump reportedly gained traction during his 2024 campaign, culminating in several attempted assassinations—including a rally attack where a bullet grazed Trump’s ear. As World Israel News previously detailed, security assessments suggest the Iranian regime viewed Trump’s potential return to the White House as a critical threat to its nuclear ambitions and regional leverage.

Netanyahu also revealed that he himself was the target of an Iranian assassination attempt. In 2023, a drone struck near his private residence in Caesarea, an incident World Israel News confirmed at the time was linked to Iranian proxy actors. “I consider myself a junior partner in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb,” Netanyahu said, suggesting his own targeting is part of Tehran’s broader strategy to decapitate opposition to its regional ambitions.

Netanyahu used the interview to defend Israel’s decision to launch Operation Rising Lion—a sweeping aerial and cyber campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, missile depots, and command infrastructure. “We were facing an imminent threat, a dual existential threat,” he said, referencing both Iran’s enrichment of uranium and its rapid missile proliferation.

According to Netanyahu, Iranian production capacity stood to reach up to 3,600 ballistic missiles per year, each capable of carrying a warhead into Israel’s urban centers at Mach 6 speed. “Within three years, 10,000 missiles. Within six years, 20,000. No country can sustain that, and certainly not a country the size of Israel,” he emphasized.

World Israel News has reported that the Israeli campaign has already severely degraded Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure, with multiple senior Iranian scientists and military officials eliminated in precision strikes. These developments, Netanyahu insisted, were not acts of war, but acts of survival.

“We had to act,” Netanyahu declared. “This was the 12th hour.”

His remarks closely align with assessments from senior Israeli defense officials, who previously told World Israel News that waiting any longer would have allowed Iran to cross an irreversible nuclear threshold—arming itself while enjoying diplomatic cover and avoiding military reprisal.

The interview also carried implicit warnings for the Biden administration and international negotiators. Netanyahu’s emphasis on Trump’s “decisive” leadership contrasts sharply with what he perceives as a misguided pursuit of engagement with Iran by Western governments.

“Giving them billions of dollars while letting them enrich uranium is not a policy. It’s surrender,” Netanyahu said, echoing critiques voiced by many in Israel’s national security establishment, as reported by World Israel News.

Though the White House has yet to formally comment on Netanyahu’s interview, Trump’s own statements in recent days appear to validate the Israeli leader’s account. In remarks to Reuters and Truth Social, Trump confirmed that “we knew everything” about Israel’s operations and called the Iranian regime “a malignant force” that “must never obtain nuclear weapons.”

Netanyahu’s comments serve not only as a justification for Israel’s bold military campaign but also as a warning to the international community: Iran’s nuclear ambitions are no longer a distant threat—they are a present and active danger, as was indicated in the World Israel News report.

The prime minister concluded the interview by reiterating his commitment to Israel’s security, even as it draws fire from enemies near and far.

“We are not seeking escalation,” he told Fox News. “But when someone prepares to strike you with annihilation, you must act. And act we did.”