Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday did not rule out plans to target Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Instead, he suggested that it would be a surefire way to “end the conflict” with the Islamic Republic.
Asked during an ABC News interview about reports that US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the Iranian supreme leader out of concern that it would escalate the fighting between the two countries further, Netanyahu was dismissive.
“It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict,” he said.
“We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East,” said the premier. “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 added.
On Sunday, several major news outlets reported that Israel had a window of opportunity on Friday to assassinate Khamenei, but US President Donald Trump vetoed the move. Israeli officials cast the series of reports as “fake news” at the time.
Americans should be deeply concerned both about Tehran’s efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon and its increasingly muscular ballistic missile capability, Netanyahu argued on Monday.
“Today it’s Tel Aviv, tomorrow it’s New York,” Netanyahu said, in what appeared to be an appeal to some of the country’s more isolationist policymakers.
“I understand ‘America First,’” he said. “I don’t understand ‘America dead.’”
“We’re not just fighting our enemy. We’re fighting your enemy. For God’s sake, they chant, ‘Death to Israel, death to America.’ We’re simply on their way. And this could reach America soon.”
The ABC News interview was the second time in as many days that Netanyahu sat for a lengthy American media interview. It was held shortly before the release of a prerecorded online press conference in Israel.
