3 min readUpdated: Mar 3, 2026 08:46 AM IST
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he teamed up with US President Donald Trump and attacked Iran first because the “unreformable” Ayotollah Khameini regime was building nuclear weapon sites and underground bunkers.
Netanyahu claimed that Iran was fast-tracking the construction of new nuclear facilities that would soon have become too fortified to destroy. He said this demanded immediate military action.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Netanyahu alleged that Tehran had begun setting up fresh sites, including underground bunkers, designed to shield both its ballistic missile infrastructure and its nuclear programme. According to him, these installations would become untouchable within a matter of months.
My statement to the special session of the @IAEAorg Board on Governors this morning on the situation in the Middle East.https://t.co/R8z6qasLhA pic.twitter.com/RMCgTjuumd
— Rafael Mariano Grossi (@rafaelmgrossi) March 2, 2026
“The reason that we had to act now is because they [Iran] were… after we hit their nuclear sites and their ballistic missiles programme, you think they’d learn a lesson. But they didn’t because they are unreformable; they are totally fanatic about this… about the goal of destroying America,” Netanyahu said.
He argued that delaying action would have permanently closed the window to respond. If that point were reached, he warned, Iran would have been in a position to threaten Israel, pressure the United States, and use its capabilities as leverage against other nations. In his remarks, Netanyahu suggested that failing to act now would allow Tehran to gain strategic immunity.
Concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been central to the justification offered by Israel and the United States for their recent strikes. Both governments have maintained that Iran was edging closer to acquiring the capacity to eventually build a nuclear weapon.
Despite those claims, there are questions about the extent of the damage inflicted so far. Following the joint military action carried out in June, much of Iran’s atomic infrastructure appears to remain intact.
Did Israel and US hit Tehran’s nuclear weapons facility?
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on Monday said there was no evidence that nuclear installations had been struck in the latest round of attacks. “we have no indication that any of the nuclear installations, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor or other nuclear fuel cycle facilities have been damaged or hit,” he said.
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“Diplomacy is hard, but it is never impossible. Nuclear diplomacy is even harder, but it is never impossible,” he added.
Which countries in the Middle East have nuclear research sites?
Grossi further said: “Iran and many other countries in the region that have been subjected to military attacks have operational nuclear power plants and nuclear research reactors, as well as associated fuel storage sites, increasing the threat to nuclear safety.”
As per the IAEA, the United Arab Emirates has four operating nuclear reactors; Jordan and Syria have operational nuclear research reactors.
Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, which have also been attacked, use nuclear applications of some sort or the other.
