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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had directed the Israel Defense Forces, Mossad and other security branches to pursue the overthrow of the Iranian regime, calling it the only way to eliminate the nuclear threat from Tehran.
“There is only one way to remove this threat once and for all: overthrow the regime in Iran. And that is my directive to the IDF, the Mossad and the security branches,” Netanyahu told an IDF officer course graduation ceremony.
“As long as they are here, as long as they strive to acquire horrific weapons, the State of Israel faces an existential threat,” Netanyahu said. “And our duty, the duty of all of us, is to save the nation.”
Netanyahu said Iran had resumed its nuclear program after Operation Rising Lion, seeking to bury the project deep beneath a mountain. That prompted the joint Israeli-U.S. Operation Roaring Lion, he said, whose opening strike killed Ali Khamenei.
The premier accused Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father after Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike on Feb. 28, of following in his father’s footsteps. “He has pulled the safety pin, and Iran is attempting once again to develop the bombs of death,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump also supported toppling the Iranian regime, quoting him as saying, “We are ready to finish the job,” but would do so only with Israel.
“We will eliminate the head of the octopus, and we will also finally sever its arms, the remainder of its arms, we will eliminate Hamas and eliminate Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said. “And I can tell you that many of our neighbors hope for this, in Lebanon, in Gaza, and certainly in Iran. In Iran, they hope for Israel’s victory.”
Addressing the graduating officers, Netanyahu called overthrowing the Iranian regime “now also your mission” and urged them “to eliminate the Axis of Evil once and for all.”
Also speaking at the graduation ceremony, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that “Iran will burn” if the Islamic Republic launches an attack on the Jewish state.
Katz said Tehran and its proxies are seeking to carry out terror attacks to influence the outcome of the Oct. 27 Knesset elections.
“The Iranian regime is at its weakest point ever, and we identify that this weakness could lead it to take the most extreme steps, including against the State of Israel,” the defense minister said.
“Our message to the Iranian regime is clear,” Katz continued. “We identify your attempts, we are prepared to thwart them, and ready to strike you with full force.”
Anyone who attacks Israel “before the elections or after them,” Katz said, “will pay the heaviest price.”
Trump also touted the strikes on Iran in remarks shared on Wednesday by the White House’s Rapid Response 47 account.
“I think it’s one of the greatest things that we’ve done—we’ve stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” he said. “It took a lot of courage to do it because no other president was willing to do it.”
In separate remarks on Wednesday, Trump said a development involving Iran could come “fairly soon” but gave conflicting accounts of talks with Tehran.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Trump told NewsNation correspondent Libbey Dean that negotiations were continuing “a little bit.”
Pressed further, he said, “We are not negotiating with [Iran]. We are gonna have something one way or the other. It’ll happen fairly soon.”
“Most people seem to think it’s after the election; we’re gonna see what happens,” he added.