Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered one of his most aggressive messages yet regarding the ongoing conflict with Iran, refusing to rule out the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a Monday interview with ABC News, Netanyahu suggested that eliminating Khamenei wouldn’t provoke further hostilities, but would instead “end the conflict.”
Asked if Israel would consider striking the supreme leader directly, Netanyahu replied pointedly, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.” He likened Khamenei to “a modern Hitler” and accused Iran’s theocracy of threatening not just Israel, but the broader world — particularly the United States.
“Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York,” Netanyahu warned, emphasizing that Tehran’s ambitions stretch far beyond the Middle East. “Look, I understand ‘America First.’ I don’t understand ‘America Dead.’ That’s what these people want.”
Netanyahu claimed that Iran’s leadership has consistently lied during past negotiations and has used talks to buy time while developing its nuclear arsenal. “They want to continue to have these fake talks in which they lie, they cheat, they string the U.S. along,” he said, adding that solid intelligence confirms Iran’s bad-faith diplomacy.
His comments come on the heels of widespread speculation that President Donald Trump had turned down an Israeli request to green-light a direct strike on Khamenei. While Netanyahu didn’t directly confirm the report, he shifted focus to current operations, highlighting that Israel had already assassinated multiple top Iranian nuclear scientists. “It’s basically Hitler’s nuclear team,” he said.
In his latest comments, Netanyahu firmly positioned Israel’s war on Iran as a moral crusade. “It’s a battle of good against evil. America does, should, and does stand with the good,” he said, praising Trump for his support.
Pressed further on critics — even within the Republican Party — who oppose U.S. military involvement, Netanyahu drew a stark line: “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.”
The Israeli campaign has already achieved significant results. Netanyahu’s military has reportedly wiped out key Iranian missile systems and killed multiple top leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Hossein Salami. With Iran firing volleys of missiles back at Israel and floating the idea of negotiations, Netanyahu remains unmoved. “They want to keep on building their nuclear weapons and building their mass ballistic missile arsenal,” he stated. “That’s not going to happen.”
As of now, Israel continues striking Tehran’s military and nuclear infrastructure while maintaining air superiority thanks to preemptive takedowns of Iranian air defenses. Iranian officials have called the Israeli attacks a “declaration of war” and vowed a response “without limits.”
Despite growing global anxiety, Netanyahu remains unapologetic and laser-focused. To him, peace will not be achieved through dialogue, but through decisive victory. Whether this means the elimination of Iran’s spiritual leader remains to be seen — but Netanyahu is clearly not backing down.
With U.S. leadership signaling hesitation about getting directly involved, the world watches closely as Israel decides how far it is willing to go to dismantle Iran’s nuclear ambitions once and for all.