Israel’s prime minister says its troops will remain in southern Lebanon for as long as needed to ensure the security of its settlements and its citizens.

Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots, about the joint operations of his country with the United States against the Islamic Republic, said: “If we had not acted at the time and with the intensity required, Iran would have equipped itself with nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. That is their program, and Israeli citizens would have faced a danger of mass death.”

He added: “That is why, together with our American friends, we began military operations against the Islamic Republic, in order to both avert the immediate threat of nuclear destruction and remove the great danger that was posed to the entire Western world.”

Earlier, the Israeli defense minister, in remarks that Israeli media described as a response to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, rejected the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.

Donald Trump, the U.S. president, had said on Wednesday that he thinks Israel will pull back from Lebanon.