Israel is “cooperating” with opponents of Iran’s government, an Israeli minister said Monday, fuelling questions as to whether its campaign against the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme also aims to topple its leadership.
Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, suggested that Israel had been working with Iranian dissidents opposed to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Speaking to the news channel i24, Eliyahu said that “the fact that we are cooperating with the opposition in Iran today is a blessing”.
But pressed by the interviewer on the nature of the cooperation, he replied: “I don’t want to get into details.”
Responding to a question about Eliyahu’s remarks, government spokesman David Mencer later insisted that Israel’s “objective is not regime change in Iran”.
“If a byproduct is the Iranian people shaking off the shackles of this oppressive regime that has oppressed the Iranian people for the past 46 or 47 years, then that would be a welcome objective, although it is not a war aim for the state of Israel,” he said.
Since the start of Israel’s campaign against Iran on June 13, government officials have stressed that it seeks primarily to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, not overthrow Khamenei.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced strikes on Evin prison and other domestic security agencies in Tehran on Monday, adding to speculation that Israel was seeking to undermine Iran’s clerical leadership.
Katz called the targets “agencies of government repression”, and noted the prison “holds political prisoners and regime opponents”.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the Israeli government had not “defined regime change” in the Islamic republic as “an objective in this war”.
US President Donald Trump, however, openly toyed with the idea.
“If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.
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