Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that the U.S. and Israeli military actions in Iran, which have so far killed hundreds of Iranians and the country's supreme leader, will not be an "endless war."
"I hear the people are saying you're going to have an endless war here," Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity. "You're not going to have an endless war. This terror regime in Iran is [at] the weakest point that it's been since it hijacked Iran from the brave Iranian people 47 years ago."
"So, this is going to be a quick and decisive action, and we're going to create the conditions first for the Iranian people to get control of their destiny to form their own democratically elected government," he said.
Netanyahu said it is time for the Iranian people to take their government away "from the yoke of this terror machine, you get a different future. I think that will open up the way for many peace treaties." He added that the U.S. and Israel are creating the conditions to do so, and to "usher in an era of peace that we haven't even dreamed of."
The prime minister also argued that the agreements set in the Abraham Accords with Israel and several Arab countries in 2020, along with Sudan in 2021, mediated by President Trump, brought "breakthroughs for peace."
"And now, working together against Iran, we will be able to bring many, many more peace treaties," Netanyahu said. "So this is not an endless war, this is a gateway to peace. It's the exact opposite of what people are saying."
Netanyahu praised Trump several times throughout the interview for the U.S. role in the strikes, contrasting him with other administrations in that he "took action, and we're all very, very lucky that he did."
"Donald Trump is the strongest leader in the world," he told Hannity. "He does what he thinks is right for America. He does also what he thinks is right for future generations."
Members of Congress have called into question Netanyahu's role in the strikes on Saturday, which decapitated Iran's leadership with the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, briefed lawmakers on Monday about the "imminent threat" Iran posed and that Israel would strike first, prompting the U.S. to launch its own attack. Some lawmakers found this to be suspect.
"And what are our country leaders doing?" Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said in an interview with MS NOW's Chris Hayes. "They're following Netanyahu, who has literally told us -- he just told on TV -- that he's been trying to do this for 47 years. There's a lot of ways that we could be supportive of Israel. There's a lot of ways that we could defend Israel's existence, its sovereignty. I'm 100 percent for that. But we don't need to go to war for them, especially when it's a dumb war."
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday how the U.S. delegated "the decision to go to war to another country."
Colby and Trump himself dismissed the notion that Netanyahu brought the U.S. into conflict with Iran. The president said when asked by a reporter if his hand was forced to strike Iran that "I might have forced their hand." Trump claimed that Iran would have struck first "if we didn't do it."