Israeli ambassador to U.S. on ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Dr. Michael Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Israel.

When asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump agreed to beginning and ending the war on the same timeline, Dr. Leiter said:

"We've been collaborating now for months, I would say, even prior to Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer in June, and that collaboration includes daily conversations in which there is an assessment of how the war is progressing, and I assume that we're going to reach a complete understanding on the end of this war as well."

Brennan followed up by asking if he believes and trusts that the U.S. will stay with Israel through the duration of the war, even if there are strains on the American economy, like gas prices, and Leiter said:

"We've reached a level of collaboration that we've never seen between our two countries and between our two militaries. This is a very important operation that doesn't depend really on a timeline. You know, when you're doing something that's so critical you are not going to look at a stopwatch. This has to be finished. This is a terror-sponsoring state that has to be brought down and that's what we're focused on."

During the interview, Brennan and Leiter talked about Prime Minister Netanyahu giving an address over the weekend, and said, to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), "To those who lay down their arms, no harm shall come. To those who do not, their blood is on their own heads."

This prompted Brennan to ask, if there isn't any Israeli ground forces, who Leiter wants the IRGC to surrender to, and how will that work, to which Leiter said:

"There are many precedents in history where the people themselves, like Romania, they turned their guns around against Ceaușescu. When people are deprived of freedom, there's a certain point where they say enough. And all they have to do is put down their weapons and not participate...look they don't to participate when the people rise up in shooting their own civilians, their own neighbors, their own families in many cases. So look the objective here is to achieve a situation where Iran is no longer an exporter of terrorism, is no longer raining ballistic missiles down on its neighbors and is no longer in the pursuit of nuclear weapons. That's achievable and together the collaborative effort between Roaring Lion and Epic Fury we're going to accomplish that."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Leiter, click here.