Tel Aviv, June 21 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (local time) reaffirmed that Israeli forces would remain in a security zone in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary to protect the country's citizens, while asserting Israel's commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Speaking at the Jerusalem News Syndicate's (JNS) International Policy Summit 2026, Netanyahu said Israeli military operations had eliminated what he described as an existential threat posed by Iran's nuclear programme.

"We have prevented Iran from carrying out a plan to annihilate us, and today they would have had a nuclear weapon, an atomic bomb, to do so. We prevented that from happening. We removed an existential danger. An...