Israeli president defends war with Iran, says targeted oil sites were 'not the oil reserves of the people'

• Israeli president Isaac Herzog defended the war with Iran in a sit-down interview with BILD.
• The president said the conflict that began with Hamas' October 7 assault is inseparable from Iran's broader strategy.
• He also said targeted Iranian oil assets were "kept by the military" and "not the oil reserves of the people of Iran."

"It's a connected war. It started October 7th, and we're reaching — actually, in my mind, I think we may be reaching the final chapter of the war by changing the entire configuration of the Middle East."

With that sweeping assessment, Israeli President Isaac Herzog defines the stakes of the expanding confrontation with Iran — not as a series of isolated campaigns in Gaza, Lebanon or beyond, but as one strategic arc aimed at dismantling what he calls Tehran's regional "war machine."

In an interview with BILD that — like Business Insider — belongs to the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, Herzog argues that Israel is approaching a decisive moment.

"In order to reach change, you have to fight the Iranians," he says. "The Iranians are the source of derailing any peace process in the region. The Iranians are the one who spread havoc and terror all over the region and the world."

For Herzog, the conflict that began with Hamas' October 7 assault is inseparable from Iran's broader strategy. "They had a grand plan of eradicating Israel by terror," he says. Tehran, he argues, built "a network of terror" across the Middle East and beyond, fueling proxy forces with "huge, huge quantities of ammunition, terrorists, and money."

He frames the current phase as potentially transformative. "If we remove the Iranian threat, we can enable oxygen, we can enable the whole system to all of a sudden start breathing and moving on in the region," Herzog says.

What stands opposite Israel, he says, is the "Empire of Evil coalition that is centered in Tehran."

What stands against it is "a coalition of moderate nations — Jews and Muslims and Christians fighting together in order to bring a different future for our children," he adds.

He calls on Europe and NATO to align more firmly with Israel's campaign. "I think NATO members should support it, I think European nations should support it, because we are actually protecting Europe by doing this."

Herzog rejects criticism — including from some voices in Washington — that Israeli strikes have gone too far, particularly in targeting Iranian oil assets.

"It's not the oil reserves of the people of Iran," he says. "It's oil that is kept by the military…used as part of their money laundering and financing of their operations. It's taken from the war machine."

He also dismisses suggestions that Israel dragged the United States deeper into the conflict.

"This is a decision of President Trump," Herzog says. "Under his leadership, he's the leader of the free world. He doesn't need Israel to take him anywhere."

Iran, he warns, was accelerating toward two dangerous thresholds: nuclear capability and a dramatically expanded missile arsenal.

"They were rushing to two issues: one is to the bomb again, and two, they were rushing to 20,000 missiles — ten times what they have," he says. "Look what they have now, how much damage it creates. 20,000 would have been a disaster. We cannot allow this anymore."

Herzog insists that time was running out. "If we were to wait, we would have almost come to a moment that it may have been irreversible," he says.

Midway through his final answer, the abstract language of strategy suddenly turned concrete.

Every phone in the room emitted a piercing, synchronized screech — the first-stage alert of Israel's missile warning system. A ballistic missile had been launched from Iran. Herzog and the reporter had roughly five minutes to determine whether Jerusalem — and the presidential residence — were in its path.

Herzog glanced down at his phone to check updated coordinates. Outside, sirens began to wail.

A loudspeaker ordered immediate shelter: the area was in danger.

The president led the reporter quickly into a reinforced corridor beneath the residence.

Underground, as security personnel monitored developments, Herzog had minutes earlier described the very threat now unfolding.

"You're here. You're in missiles," he had said. "You're talking about missiles that go up 300 kilometers, they cross from the atmosphere, they cross into space, and they fall on us. And by 'Star Wars' of our unique technologies, we are intercepting them."

This time, Israel's Arrow 3 system did just that — intercepting the missile in deep space.

Herzog's central argument: that confronting Iran directly is not escalation, but prevention.

"With cruelty, you have to meet with a lot of effort and with a lot of strength," he says of Tehran's regime. "Now is the time not to blink."

This story originally ran in BILD and appears on Business Insider through the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network. The network publishes major stories from the Axel Springer network of publications, a worldwide group of news outlets that includes Business Insider.