With continued rising tensions between Israel and Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed ABC News that he is not yet discounting taking out Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Interview Reveals Previous U.S. Involvement
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl asked Netanyahu about media reports that US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamanei, to which the Israeli PM responded saying, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”
“The ‘forever war’ is what Iran wants, and they’re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil,” he told the news outlet.
Targeting Leadership: Netanyahu’s Stance
Netanyahu explained that killing Khamenei would not heighten the current struggle between Iran and Israel, but it would bring it to an end.
Responding to a question about whether Israel would target the Iranian supreme leader, Netanyahu said that his country was “doing what we need to do”. He further said, “I’m not going to get into the details, but we’ve targeted their top nuclear scientists,” adding that “it’s basically Hitler’s nuclear team”.
Two US officials had told news agency Reuters on Sunday that Trump had blocked an Israeli plan to kill Ayatollah. One of the sources had said, “Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership.”
Netanyahu Responds as Tensions Escalate Amid Iranian Missile Threat
The officials claimed that Israeli officials informed the US side of an opportunity they had to kill the Iranian supreme leader, but Trump dismissed them from the plot.
The declaration of the Israeli Prime Minister comes only hours after Iran announced that it was organizing the “largest and most intense missile attack” Israel ever witnessed.
In the midst of the ongoing war, both Iran and Israel have been consistently threatening each other with extreme repercussions.