Powerful Iranian missiles inflicted heavy losses during 12-day war: Ex-Israeli war minister

Former minister of military affairs of Israel Avigdor Lieberman has admitted that powerful Iranian missile attacks inflicted heavy losses on Israeli "strategic targets" during the 12-day war last June.

“We have the best air force in the world, but at the same time, we saw the real power of Iranian ballistic missiles: Emad-1, Shahab-3, Khorramshahr and others,” Lieberman ​​​​​​said on Thursday. 

"Obviously, the Iranians struck strategic targets of Israel. I don't want to go into details; it's impossible to explain more now," the former Israeli war minister noted. 

“The Iranians managed to destroy the laboratory and all the accumulated research – all the data and results of our work over several decades,” he said. 

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) started its retaliatory Operation True Promise III in the evening of June 13, 2025, hours after the Israeli regime, backed by the United States, carried out a large-scale military aggression on multiple locations inside Iran, targeting nuclear facilities, military infrastructure, and residential buildings in Tehran and other cities.

The regime assassinated high-ranking Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists. Civilians, including children and women, were also killed in the savage acts of aggression.

The latest Iranian operation had involved large-scale missile and drone strikes by the IRGC targeting sites across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Liberman went on to stress that "the Iranians hit strategic targets, and we are not ready for defense now."

“Yesterday, I read in the newspapers that Netanyahu asked Trump to postpone the attack on Iran, because we are not ready in the field of defense,” he said. 

Western media reports said Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently asked US President Donald Trump to postpone any plans for a military attack on Iran.

Israeli media reports said that there were likely a variety of reasons why Netanyahu pushed him in that direction.

Observers said Netanyahu’s reluctance exposes new air defense holes and that Israel was unable to face a potential Iranian ballistic missile strike.

Ex-minister of military affairs: Israel lost war in north to Hezbollah

Former minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman says Israel has lost the war in the north to Hezbollah.

They say any US-Israeli attack on Iran would be met with a force they have not yet known.

In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has demanded a fundamental shift in US policy following a year of failed aggression and foreign-backed destabilization efforts targeting Iran.

While emphasizing that he "abhors war," Araghchi warned against any renewed military adventurism.

Unlike the restraint shown in mid-2025, Araghchi stated that Iran’s Armed Forces "have no qualms about firing back with everything we have."

He dismissed the "fantasy timelines" of a short conflict peddled by Israeli hawks, warning that an all-out confrontation would be "ferocious," long-lasting, and would "engulf the wider region," impacting ordinary people across the globe.

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