“This is not an endless war,” Netanyahu says. Here’s what we know about the timeline

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against criticism that the conflict flaring in the Middle East would spiral into an “endless war,” claiming instead that it would lead to peace and democracy in Iran.

Speaking in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Monday, Netanyahu said: “This is not an endless war. This is in fact something that will usher in an era of peace that we haven’t even dreamed of.”

He repeated claims that action had been necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon, without providing any evidence that it was any closer to obtaining one.

Those claims, echoed by US President Trump, contradict US intelligence on the matter, which has assessed that Iran is nearly a decade away from developing a “militarily-viable” intercontinental ballistic missile.

Trump has been muddied in suggesting what comes next, both in the length of the US military campaign in Iran and who might take over the country. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday, Trump said: “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”