Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter discussed Iran’s attempted ballistic missile strike Saturday targeting Diego Garcia, the joint U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean more than 2,000 miles from Iran.
Appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash, Leiter was first asked about the missile strikes in Israel on Saturday evening that caused significant damage.
“Israel’s emergency response service declared a mass casualty event, as I mentioned. Can you give an update on the ground there? And also, what kind of response do we expect from Israel?” Bash asked.
Leiter said there were “a number of fatalities” and that more than 150 people were injured in the attacks on Arad and Dimona.
“The response is going to be to continue with this campaign until we bring this regime to its knees,” Leiter stated. “We cannot live anymore with a country that is malign, that has intent on destroying us, that declares it’s going to destroy us all the time, and is now firing ballistic missiles into all of its neighbors. This has to stop.”
Bash then pressed Leiter on the ICBMs that were fired at Diego Garcia: “Doesn’t that fly in the face of the claim by the president and the prime minister that the missiles that the Iranians have have been obliterated?”
Leiter hit back, saying that the missile launch reinforces the point that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have made, which is that Iran lies.
“The Iranian regime lie. These are murderers who lie. It shouldn’t surprise us — and they said they don’t have intercontinental ballistic missiles. Well, now they prove that they do have them. Not only do they have them; they’re willing to shoot them,” the ambassador said. “They claimed, until now, there was no such thing as an ICBM in Iran. They didn’t develop them.”
Leiter then painted a frightening scenario, asking Bash to imagine that the ICBMs Iran lied about having don’t simply travel 2,000 miles, but 4,000 miles or more, which would allow them to strike a major city in the United States.
“That’s what they’re planning to do. Now, imagine that those ICBMs are tipped with nuclear warheads, which they were planning to do as well. So, we have to face a very difficult situation,” he said before noting that while gas prices are temporarily higher as a result of the war, they will return to normal.
“But this malign government is intent on taking lives. Lives don’t come back, okay? It’s a temporary issue we have to face economically in order to protect lives and save lives from malign regime interested in taking lives.”
Israeli Ambassador to US Michael Leiter says the war in Iran will continue “until we bring this regime to its knees” pic.twitter.com/z24YbIaCYZ
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) March 22, 2026
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