Netanyahu says Israeli attacks could lead to regime change in Iran

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday that regime change in Iran "could certainly be the result" of its ongoing Israeli military operations.

Fox's Bret Baier on his Special Report program asked Netanyahu about the goal of the strikes that began early Friday.

"Is regime change part of the effort here?" Baier asked.

"It could certainly be the result because the Iran regime is very weak," Netanyahu replied, claiming that Israel got Iran's chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran.

Israel is ready to do whatever is necessary to achieve to remove "two existential threats," he said, referring to the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat.

"We did act -- to save ourselves, but also, I think, to not only protect ourselves, but protect the world from this incendiary regime. We can't have the world's most dangerous regime have the world's most dangerous weapons," Netanyahu said.

He also stressed Israel "will not have a second Holocaust, a nuclear holocaust. We already had one in the previous century."

Since early Friday, Israel has launched a series of strikes against Iranian territory, targeting nuclear and missile facilities and killing senior military figures and leading scientists. Oil and gas infrastructure was also targeted.

Iran responded with missiles targeting several areas across Israel.

Netanyahu had earlier said the operation will continue as long as necessary.