Netanyahu: Toppling Iran’s Regime Is the Only Way to Eliminate Its Nuclear Threat

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an officers’ graduation ceremony that overthrowing Iran’s regime is the only way to eliminate its nuclear threat, declaring that this is his directive to the IDF, Mossad and Israel’s security services.

Netanyahu said Iran was again trying to develop nuclear weapons and that Mojtaba Khamenei had chosen to follow his father’s path. He warned that a weakened Iranian leadership remained dangerous as long as it retained the ambition to destroy Israel and acquire the weapons to do so.

“There is only one way to remove this threat once and for all: topple the regime in Iran,” Netanyahu said. “That is my directive to the IDF, the Mossad and the security services.”

Khamenei Has “Pulled the Pin”

Addressing the graduating officers, Netanyahu accused Mojtaba Khamenei of continuing his father’s course.

“This Mojtaba has decided to follow in his father’s footsteps,” he said. “And he has pulled the pin.”

Netanyahu connected that decision to Iran’s renewed efforts to develop nuclear weapons, which he described as “bombs of death.”

He argued that damage inflicted on the regime had not extinguished its ambitions. As long as its leaders remained standing, he said, even if they were “bleeding,” the extremists still had hope of achieving their goals.

Netanyahu described those goals in stark terms: “First, death to Israel. Then, death to the United States too. But first, death to Israel.”

As long as that leadership remained in place and continued seeking such weapons, he said, Israel faced an existential threat. He told the officers that the responsibility shared by Israel’s leadership and security establishment was to save the nation.

Netanyahu Says Trump Shares the Objective

Netanyahu also invoked U.S. President Donald Trump, whom he described as his “good friend,” saying the American president believed this was the only way forward.

He recounted remarks he attributed to Trump from several days earlier about being ready to “finish the job” together with Israel.

“We are ready to finish the job, but we will do it only with you, the State of Israel,” Netanyahu quoted Trump as saying.

Netanyahu followed that account with a commitment of his own: “And that is exactly what we will do.”

Iran and Its Remaining Proxies

The prime minister then extended his remarks beyond Iran’s nuclear programme to the regime’s regional network.

Using the image of an octopus, Netanyahu pledged to neutralize its head and sever its remaining tentacles. He explicitly named Hamas and Hezbollah as targets.

“We will eliminate Hamas and eliminate Hezbollah,” he said.

Netanyahu added that many of Israel’s neighbours hoped for that outcome, including people in Lebanon, Gaza and Iran. He said people in Iran were hoping for an Israeli victory.

He closed by bringing the message back to the officers graduating before him, describing the task ahead as a “fateful mission.”

“It is now your mission too,” Netanyahu said.