Netanyahu claims main goals of Iran war achieved, says they never included regime change but ‘there are cracks’ in Tehran’s rule

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to defend the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran in his press conference, claiming its central goals were achieved despite the Iranian regime remaining in power.

Asked by a reporter about his apparent objective of removing the threat “posed by Iran’s regime” — and why, three months later, the end of the campaign is being declared while that regime remains intact — Netanyahu rejects the premise that things went wrong.

“It did not go wrong at all. I defined the goals — and the cabinet defined the goals — differently from what you said,” Netanyahu says.

“We said we wanted to remove an existential danger from over us: first, the nuclear danger — and we did that. We said we wanted to remove from over us the [ballistic missile] danger — and we did that. And we said we wanted to create the conditions that would allow the Iranian people, should they wish, to remove from themselves this terror regime,” Netanyahu says.

Both the US and Israel had been somewhat vague when laying out war aims at the outset of the campaign, but Israel consistently stressed the threat from Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, as well as from its proxy network, at times, adding the goal of “creating the conditions” for regime change in Iran.

While appearing to acknowledge that any aspirations for regime change have not yet been met, Netanyahu adds: “Iran is in a very difficult economic situation. We struck every possible infrastructure there. The damage is enormous. There are cracks within this regime as well.”

“Can I tell you when this regime will fall? I do not know. Could I have told you when the Soviet regime would fall? No. I cannot tell you,” he says.

Addressing Israel’s broader strategic achievements since the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, which ultimately led to Israel’s wars with Iran last year and this year, Netanyahu argues that Israel is far stronger today than it was on October 7, pointing to what he describes as achievements against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats as well as against Hamas and Hezbollah.

“Israel on October 7 and Israel today — how can one compare them? Israel before, with a regime racing toward nuclear weapons and going to produce thousands more ballistic missiles against us — and today this threat has been averted… And the main thing I can tell you is that there is an organized, systematic effort to minimize these enormous achievements, to avoid showing that Israel is emerging renewed, strong and steadfast, and that it has leadership capable of standing for what is necessary,” he says.