Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he ordered all of his country's security agencies, including the army, Mossad and military intelligence, to act to topple the Islamic Republic. Speaking at a briefing with reporters at his office in Jerusalem on Sunday, 18 October 2026, he said the Islamic Republic must fall and that he himself would bring it down.
Netanyahu made the remarks a day after announcing Israel's new national security doctrine, which gives priority to prevention and pre-emptive strikes and places confronting the Islamic Republic at its centre. According to him, toppling the Islamic Republic remains Israel's main strategic objective, and the plan he has for it is "comprehensive and determined".
Why people did not rise up, in Netanyahu's view
Asked why two rounds of war with the Islamic Republic had not led to its fall, the Israeli prime minister said the bloody repression of protesters was the main reason: people in Iran, he said, did not take to the streets because they were being killed. He added that Iran's steadily worsening economy has built up public pressure that could lead to new protests.
This assessment matches the Islamic Republic's record during the Dey uprising, which the regime answered with bullets, mass arrests and death sentences.
Video call with Donald Trump
On Monday, 19 October, Netanyahu also posted on X a video of his conversation with US President Donald Trump and wrote that together they would remove the Islamic Republic's threat forever. He said the work with the Islamic Republic was unfinished, and Trump replied by calling him a "great warrior".
The statements come ahead of Israel's parliamentary election on 27 October and after Israel Katz, Israel's defence minister, announced readiness to resume strikes with full force. At the same briefing, Netanyahu said Israel would act against the Islamic Republic without needing US approval if necessary, and that Tehran's nuclear programme remains the most important outstanding threat.
Israel's prime minister declared the overthrow of the Islamic Republic the official goal of all his country's security agencies.
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