Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (March 12, 2026) the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign was "crushing" Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and called for Iranians to rise up and overthrow the Islamic republic.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke soon after the new Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei's first statement, in which he vowed to avenge the Iranians killed in the war so far. "We are crushing Iran and Hezbollah," Mr. Netanyahu said in a televised media briefing.
Iran-Israel war LIVE
In wide-ranging comments on the war, Mr. Netanyahu said he was seeking to use the conflict to oust the clerical leadership in Tehran.
"I have added a third objective, which is to create, for the Iranian people, the conditions to bring down this regime," Mr. Netanyahu said.
