Benjamin Netanyahu: the only way is to get rid of the Islamic Republic

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said in an interview with Fox News, reported on Saturday, 17 October 2026, that the only way to confront the Islamic Republic is to get rid of this regime. According to him, the process will be long and has both a military and an economic dimension.

Netanyahu drew a clear line between the rulers of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian people. He spoke warmly of the history and civilization of the Iranians and said the religious regime has taken the Iranian people hostage; in his words, the enemy is the ayatollahs who rule Iran, not the Iranian people. He called Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis the regime's arms and likened the Islamic Republic to a poisonous octopus.

Warning about missiles and the atomic bomb

The Israeli prime minister said the Islamic Republic calls America the "Great Satan" and Israel the "Little Satan" and that its commitment to destroying America is firm. According to him, the chain of this regime's goals begins with the destruction of Israel and leads to domination of the Middle East, shipping routes and the world's oil, then Europe and finally America. Netanyahu claimed the Islamic Republic is seeking to build intercontinental ballistic missiles to reach American soil and to obtain a nuclear warhead, and that with such a weapon every American city would be vulnerable to its blackmail.

He called any agreement with Tehran short-lived and said this regime cannot be won over with concessions or money, because it lies and deceives. Netanyahu described Donald Trump's approach to the Islamic Republic as brilliant and based on firm conviction, and recalled that before the previous US election, in a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had told him the Islamic Republic must be prevented from obtaining the atomic bomb.

Background: regime change on Israel's agenda

The remarks come two days after Ofir Falk, Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser, said Israel is very close to creating the conditions for regime change in Iran, stressing the role of the Iranian nation in that change. At the same time, Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Georgia, said the war with the Islamic Republic will end very soon.

Netanyahu: the enemy is the ruling ayatollahs, not the Iranian people, and the only way is for the Islamic Republic to go.