Israel’s ambassador to Washington said the war against Iran will likely require regime change to achieve its objectives, even as official messaging from both Jerusalem and Washington has increasingly focused on degrading Iranian military capabilities rather than toppling its government.

“If that can be done without regime change, okay. Probably can’t, though. So at the very least, what we want is regime collapse,” Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said on the American Enterprise Institute’s podcast, which aired Monday.

Leiter framed the war’s core purpose as eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile arsenal, and its network of regional proxies. “The purpose is to make sure that we don’t have a power, an entity in Tehran, which is developing nuclear weapons, is developing weapons of mass destruction in terms of these ballistic missiles, and is supporting proxies around the region,” he said.

Regime change was never formally listed among the war’s stated objectives. While Israeli leaders signaled early in the conflict their desire to see the Islamic Republic fall, recent public messaging from both countries has shifted toward the more limited goal of stripping Iran of its military capabilities.

Leiter also described a deepening alliance between Israel and Gulf Arab states that he said has accelerated over the past month of fighting. “Whether it’s UAE, Bahrain, I think we’ve become closer to the Saudis, closer to the Omanis, closer to the Kuwaitis for crying out loud,” he said, adding that several of those countries had actively requested Israeli assistance during the conflict.

The ambassador pointed to a recent op-ed by Emirati envoy to Washington Yousef Otaiba as evidence of aligned Gulf objectives, noting that Otaiba had called for a conclusive outcome addressing Iran’s full range of threats, including its nuclear capabilities, missiles, drones, proxy forces, and blockade of international shipping lanes. Leiter said Otaiba was “very clear” that the conflict would not end simply because the US declared its mission complete.

“This isn’t going to end even if at some point the US says, ‘We’ve done our job. We’ve taken out all the production sites. We’ve destroyed them militarily, and now we’re wrapping up,'” Leiter said.

He added that Iran has been “put on notice” that Israel and its regional allies intend to continue acting regardless. “This could really make the difference going into the future,” he said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)