“We wanted to eliminate Khamenei”: the Israeli Defense Minister Katz | News Israel-Iran Conflict

Katz says that Israel has a “green light” of us to attack Iran if Tehran makes “progress” with its nuclear program.

Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said his country wanted to kill the supreme head of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the recent 12-day war between the two parties that ended this week with a ceasefire.

Katz said Thursday that Israel would not have needed the United States authorization to kill Khamenei, seeming to refute previous media reports that Washington had vetoed the assassination.

“We wanted to eliminate KhameneiBut there was no operational opportunity, “Katz said in an interview with Israel Channel 13.

Katz said Khamenei knew that an attempt at his life was on the cards and had gone “underground towards very much depths”, breaking the contacts with commanders who replaced the leaders of the Guardian of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard murdered in the first wave of Israeli strikes.

Khamenei published video messages during the war, and there is no evidence to confirm that he was cut off from his generals.

Killing Khamenei would have been a major escalation in the conflict. In addition to being the de facto head of state in Iran, the supreme head is a major spiritual authority for millions of Shiite Muslims around the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the American president Donald Trump Both had suggested at various times that war could trigger a regime change, the latter published on social networks last Sunday that the conflict could “make Iran great again”.

Katz’s comments came in the middle Contradictory reports On the extent of the destruction formulated on Iran’s nuclear capacity, mainly due to the American bombing of sites in Ford, Natanz and Isfahan. Khamenei said on Thursday that the United States had “exaggerated” the impact of strikes.

The Israeli Defense Minister said his country had a “green light” of Trump to launch another attack on Iran if it was considered to be “progress” with its nuclear program.

“I do not see a situation where Iran will restore nuclear installations after the attack,” he said.

For his part, Netanyahu said Thursday that the outcome of the war had presented a “window of opportunity” for other official diplomatic agreements with the Arab states.

The conflict ended with a ceasefire of American mail after Iran responded to the American strikes with a missile attack against Qatar Al Udeid Air base, which houses American troops.

“We have determining with determination against Iran and won a great victory. This victory opens the way to considerably expand the peace agreements,” Netanyahu said in an apparent reference to the Abraham agreements, which establishes official links between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.

Iran also declared victory after the war, claiming that it had thwarted the Israeli goals – namely to end the nuclear and ballistic missile programs in Tehran – and managed to force Netanyahu to put an end to the assault with the missile strikes which left generalized destruction in Israel.