Netanyahu says Iran regime change ‘possible, not guaranteed’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday it was possible Iran’s leadership could eventually be toppled, though he stopped short of predicting such an outcome
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday it was possible Iran’s leadership could eventually be toppled, though he stopped short of predicting such an outcome
“Is it possible? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No,” Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes aired Sunday.
His remarks came as US President Donald Trump dismissed Iran’s latest response to a US proposal as “totally unacceptable,” while Iranian state media said Tehran rejected what it described as Washington’s “excessive demands.”
The dispute appears to center on two of the war’s most contentious issues: Iran’s insistence on sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and Washington’s demands over Tehran’s nuclear program, particularly its stockpile of enriched uranium and enrichment infrastructure.
Netanyahu acknowledged that Israeli planners only fully grasped the scale of the risk posed by Iran’s ability to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after the war began.
“It took a while for them to understand how big that risk is, which they understand now,” he said.
The war between Israel, the United States and Iran began on February 28 and formally paused under a ceasefire framework brokered through Pakistani mediation, though negotiations over a broader settlement remain unresolved.
Iran’s throttling of traffic through the strait, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supply normally passes, has driven oil prices and US gasoline prices higher in recent weeks, complicating the political backdrop for Trump.
Netanyahu also said the conflict was “not over” as long as Iran retained highly enriched uranium and active enrichment facilities.
“There’s still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran,” Netanyahu said. “There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled.”
Asked how the uranium should be removed, Netanyahu replied: “You go in, and you take it out.”
Trump says Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, while Tehran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and intended for civilian purposes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has meanwhile repeatedly warned that Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 60% purity—one step from weapons-grade—has “no credible civilian justification.”
Netanyahu said a collapse of the Islamic Republic would likely mean “the end of Hezbollah, the end of Hamas” and probably the Houthis, arguing that Iran’s regional network depends heavily on Tehran’s leadership.
He also said he hoped Israel could eventually reduce its dependence on US military aid, describing it as the right time to begin rethinking the financial component of the US-Israel relationship.
Israel currently receives about $3.8 billion annually in US military assistance under a 10-year agreement signed in 2016.
