Israel is trying to give Iranian people 'an opportunity to remove the regime', says Netanyahu after Larijani operation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said attacks by his country's forces on Iran's leaders were aimed at weakening the regime in Tehran, in a video message released after Israel claimed the killing of Ali Larijani, described by Netanyahu as the head of a group that “effectively runs Iran,” the BBC and The New York Times reported.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, whom Israel claims killed overnight, was considered by many observers to be the man who led the regime in Tehran after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to The Jerusalem Post. Iran has yet to confirm Larijani's death.
“We are undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people an opportunity to remove it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Analysts believe that such a scenario is still unlikely, at least for now.
“This will not happen suddenly and will not happen easily,” the Israeli prime minister admitted.
Israel says the commander of the Basij militia was also killed
Israel claims it also killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij paramilitary force. The Basij is a civilian-clothed militia unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used to quell protests, often with lethal force. In recent weeks it has operated checkpoints in Tehran and other Iranian cities.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told a news conference that the killing of Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani could bring Israel closer to its goal of removing the current Iranian government. “Our actions weaken its repression mechanisms. The regime can only be overthrown by the Iranian people, but without foreign aid, the Iranian people cannot liberate themselves,” Saar said.
The Israeli military continued to bombard Tehran on Tuesday. New attacks by Israeli forces also took place in Lebanon, where Israel launched an operation against Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
