Israel President Isaac Herzog is seen at his official residence in Jerusalem. Benny Doutsh for NPR hide caption
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Benny Doutsh for NPR
JERUSALEM — Israeli President Isaac Herzog told NPR that his country would welcome international support in its war to eradicate Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel says was on the threshold of building atomic weapons.
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President Herzog — who holds a largely ceremonial role in Israel — spoke to NPR in his official residence in Jerusalem Wednesday, as President Trump was still weighing whether to intervene militarily in Iran. Trump is believed to be considering potentially authorizing B-2 bombers with bunker-busting bombs to take out Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear sites.
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Trump had earlier demanded an “unconditional surrender” from Iran, which he said meant: “I’ve had it. OK, I’ve had it. I give up. No more. Then we go blow up all the, you know, all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the place there.”
While Israel has not publicly called on the U.S. to join its offensive against Iran, Herzog said intervention from “nations” would certainly be welcomed.
“There’s a bigger picture here that the world and the American people should understand,” he said. It was just hours before Iran fired another missile barrage at Israel, which it has done repeatedly since Israel began attacking Iran last Friday.
“We have to stop this empire of evil — no more! — and tell them, get the goddamn nukes out of your hands. And start behaving in a decent way and not be the rogue state you are all over the world. It’s impossible,” Herzog said.
Iran has insisted its enrichment program is only for civilian purposes, though nuclear experts say it has enriched uranium to levels where it could be poised to break out and produce several warheads.
Israel shared intelligence with the U.S. before attacking Iran
Herzog said that Israel has been planning the attack on Iran for months, but the decision to carry it out was made only a few days ago, after Israel shared intelligence with the United States that Herzog said showed Iran’s plans to break out and produce a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t say that we got the approval from the United States, nor did we cooperate, but we’ve exposed to the Americans the hard intelligence and evidence that we have,” he said.
It was the first time an Israeli leader has spoken publicly about sharing such intelligence with the U.S. The Israeli president said the U.S. knew for days that Israel was considering a strike on Iran.
A person familiar with the matter told NPR on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject that Israeli officials aren’t asking the U.S. to join the war but that they would be happy for their closest ally to actively participate, and believe the U.S. will in fact step in militarily.
That intervention could prove vital to Israel’s war aims: Only the U.S. military has the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs that could possibly penetrate the defenses of Iran’s Fordo nuclear site, built into the side of a mountain, and it is also only the U.S. that possesses the aircraft powerful enough to deliver them.
Israel says its airstrikes have established dominance of the skies over the Iranian capital of Tehran and the western part of the country, where the main nuclear facilities are located. Israel and the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency assess that the attacks have severely damaged other sites, such as Natanz, but Fordo is the hardest to destroy.
The war could weaken Iran’s regime
Herzog also said that the war could weaken Iran’s regime so much that it may even fall. He said the government’s collapse could change the face of the region and, in his opinion, lead to an end of the war in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting Hamas since 2023, when the Iran-backed Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack on southern Israel.
However, some regional security analysts warn that a U.S. intervention could widen the conflict and provoke Iranian strikes on U.S. military bases in the Gulf, as well as oil infrastructure in the Gulf, which could send shockwaves through world markets.
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