FRANCE 24 spoke to Israel's Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat, who previously served as mayor of Jerusalem and is a member of PM Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party. "We have to attack Iran", he declared, saying that this included hitting Tehran's nuclear capabilities.
Barkat claimed that "Iran is the head of the snake" and is using its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen in a bid to "choke Israel". According to him, Iran's aim is to "create a nuclear bomb" to "wipe Israel out".
Asked about the risk that an Israeli attack on Iran would ignite a regional war, Barkat replied: "It's our neck on the line!"
He added that Israel's goal in Lebanon was to remove the "terror infrastructure" on the northern border so that displaced Israelis can return home and that Israel had no intention of occupying the area. The minister also asserted that Hezbollah had planned an October 7-type attack on the northern border.
Asked whether Israel was seeking regime change in Lebanon, he said: "We'd be very happy to [see it but] it's not the goal of the war."
Turning to the war in Gaza, Barkat claimed that Hamas has embedded its "terror infrastructure" in the civilian infrastructure in a bid to avoid Israeli strikes.
When asked about the civilian death toll in Gaza, he said: "We have no choice. Israel did not start this war."
According to Barkat, Israel's goal is not to reoccupy Gaza. Instead, he said he wanted Gaza to become a new Dubai that would "recognise Israel as a legitimate state to live next to".
"We want to see Dubai next to us, [with a] successful government structure. It's a much better model than a two-state solution," he claimed.
