After Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first public statement, vowed to keep up attacks on Gulf Arab countries and use the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the US and Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out with a thinly veiled warning.
Asserting that the joint US–Israel campaign against Iran is “going better than expected” and Israel is “stronger than ever”, Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said there was “no life insurance” for Iran’s newly chosen supreme leader.
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The timing of his statement is significant , as this is his first press conference since the war began and comes shortly after the first public address by the new supreme leader. Netanyahu had largely avoided open press conferences during the conflict.
His claim that the coordinated campaign is going “better than expected” appears aimed at projecting confidence, both to the Israeli public and to international partners backing the operation.
He also suggested that the military campaign against Iran may enter a more intense phase in the coming days.
On a question about whether Israel would target Khamenei and Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, Netanyahu said, “I wouldn’t take out a life insurance policy on any of the leaders of the terror organisations.”
Mojtaba’s father, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in joint U.S.–Israel strikes on February 28.
Speaking about toppling the regime in Iran, the Israeli prime minister said the US and Israel were acting “to create the conditions for the Iranian people so that they can remove the cruel regime of tyranny”.
“We are landing crushing blows on the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, both in the streets and at checkpoints, and we are still active,” he said.
Netanyahu, addressing the Iranian people, said, “The moment when you can embark on a new path of freedom, that moment is approaching. We stand by you, and we are helping you. But at the end of the day, it depends on you! It is in your hands.”
When asked by reporters again if Israel would push for regime change, Netanyahu said, “You can lead someone to water, but you cannot make him drink.”
“We will create optimal conditions to do this, including airstrikes as we did yesterday, as we are doing these days, to try to give them the space needed to take to the streets,” signalling that the campaign would not include introducing boots on the ground to force the ouster of the current regime.
In any case, the Israeli premier said that the war has ensured that it is “no longer the same Iran, it is no longer the same Middle East, and it is also not the same Israel”.
“We do not wait. We initiate, we attack, and we do so with a force that is unprecedented,” he said, adding that Israel has “many surprises” up its sleeve for the current campaign.
Netanyahu also lauded his relationship with US President Donald Trump.
