Latest news with #IslamicRegime
CBS News
3 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Would Israel try to kill Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and what would it mean for the region?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out assassinating Iran's 86-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the figurehead of what he calls an "existential" threat to Israel. Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel would like to see, and even help to precipitate a change of regime in Iran, which has been ruled by a hardline theocratic government since the 1979 Islamic revolution. On Friday, after ordering the first attacks on Iran's nuclear sites, Netanyahu said: "Israel's fight is not against the Iranian people. Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you." He urged the people of Iran "to unite around its flag and its historic legacy, by standing up for your freedom from the evil and oppressive regime," adding, "This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard." Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Asked by ABC News in an interview that aired Monday if Israel would try to kill Khamenei, Netanyahu would only say that his country was "doing what we need to do." He rejected suggestions that such a move would be escalatory, however, saying: "It's not going to escalate the conflict, it's going to end the conflict." Israel's strikes hit Khamenei's inner circle "I imagine the supreme leader is currently unable to sleep and worried about whether he'll be alive or not," Holly Dagres, a regional expert and senior fellow at the Washington Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., told CBS News on Monday. Israel's ongoing strikes have killed several of Iran's top generals and security advisers to the ayatollah, dealing a blow to his inner circle, which, according to the Reuters news agency, consists of only 15 to 20 trusted loyalists. The dead include the commander-in-chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami, the chief of Iran's ballistic missile program Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and spy chief Mohammad Kazemi. On Tuesday, Israel's military boasted about killing the man tapped to replace the Iranian military's chief of staff, just four days after it killed his predecessor in its first round of strikes. An Israeli military spokesman said Iranian Chief of Staff Ali Shadmani "was eliminated at the Iranian regime's headquarters in the heart of Tehran," calling him "the man closest to Iran's leader Khamenei." A view of damaged vehicles in the Iranian capital, Tehran, following an attack by Israel, June 13, 2025. Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty But even if Israel were to kill the ayatollah himself, Dagres said Iran's clerical regime has an established process in place to keep the government stable. Iran is not run by "one man and some generals" "The thing with the Islamic Republic is this isn't just one man and some generals," Dagres told CBS News. "This is a system or an apparatus that has been thought through very extensively. The Islamic Republic has something that's akin to the (Vatican's) College of Cardinals — the Assembly of Experts, and they actually determine who gets to be supreme leader." The top-level religious body, also known as Iran's Council of Experts, is composed of 88 senior Islamic clerics who are responsible for electing Iran's supreme leader, usually when the current one dies. "From what we've been seeing so far, it doesn't sound like any of those people have been targeted" by Israel, said Dagres. "This is a replaceable regime in terms of leadership at the top, because they're prepared for the eventual death of a supreme leader." An interior view of the old Iranian Parliament building during Iran's Assembly of Experts' biannual meeting in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 5, 2024. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Even if Iran's entire theocratic system of government were to collapse, the upheaval would not necessarily guarantee a new government that is any friendlier to Iran's own repressed people, to Israel, or to the United States. "There could be a scenario where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps takes over, and they could go in different directions," said Dagres. "They could be more authoritarian. They can be more Western-friendly. We don't know. I think one of the lessons of the Arab Spring, up until the fall of Assad, was that what happens isn't always better." Those Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings across the Middle East in 2010 — in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia — were initially met with hope in the democratic Western world, but in most of those countries, the bids for democracy either devolved into civil war, or were beaten back by new or returning authoritarian regimes or the rise of extremist groups. Could internal tension threaten Iran's regime? Echoing Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday he could suffer a fate similar to Iraq's former President Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi strongman's regime fell in 2003 after nearly a quarter century. He was found hiding in a bunker by U.S. forces and was then sentenced to death by a special Iraqi tribunal and hanged for crimes against humanity. "I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and launch missiles toward Israeli civilians," Katz said on Tuesday. "He should remember what happened to the dictator in the neighboring country to Iran who took the same path against Israel." Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and commentator in Tel Aviv, told CBS News on Tuesday that the "kinds of tensions that cause a regime to fall are usually internal, not external." "A country of 10 million cannot precipitate a regime change in a country of 90 million," Pinkas noted, highlighting the vast discrepancy in size between Israel and the much larger Iran, which he noted was also 1,100 miles away. "For that to happen, for a regime change to happen, you need basically a reenactment of the failed Iraq invasion [by the U.S.] of 2003," Pinkas said. "And I don't think anyone wants that, certainly not the Americans." He views Netanyahu's call for Iranians to rise up against their own leadership as "sheer arrogance." "I doubt anyone living in Tehran and listening to Netanyahu would say, 'Oh, wow, you know, this is a call for action, I should get out and fight the regime because Mr. Netanyahu, a thousand miles away, told me to do so.'" The last time mass anti-government street protests erupted in Iran was in 2022 with the so-called "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. That outrage was sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's religious police, reportedly after being detained for an improper head covering. Netanyahu has repeated the three-word protest refrain in messages aimed directly at Iranians since his country launched its attacks late last week. But those protests in Iran were quashed quickly — and aggressively — by Iranian authorities and had died down by the spring of 2023. Since Israel started bombing Iran last week, no one has taken to the streets in Iranian cities. The country's residents appear to be focusing on the immediate threat, scrambling for shelter and to evacuate major cities as Israeli bombs fall. "Why would you be on the streets if Israeli jets are bombarding those very streets or bombarding military targets not far from you," noted Pinkas. "They're driving away, as far away as possible from Tehran… but I think that when the dust settles — and that could be in two, three days, it could also be in three weeks, I honestly cannot predict that — I think a lot of that anger will be taken out on the regime." In other words, even if Israel's actions don't prompt an immediate toppling of Iran's Islamic rulers, it could fuel Iranians' determination to stand up to their clerical leaders. If that happens, it could come at one of the ayatollah's weakest moments in almost half a century.
India Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Fact Check: Old videos VIRAL as Israelis, Iranians fleeing amid ongoing conflict
The conflict between Israel and Iran shows no sign of easing, with Iran stating that Pakistan would nuke the former if it resorted to nuclear warfare, though Pakistan has flatly denied this. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran was actively working on assassinating US President Donald media, meanwhile, has been rife with videos of people in both Israel and Iran allegedly fleeing their countries. In this story, we shall debunk three such fleeing an airport A video of people, including children, running helter-skelter, seemingly at an airport was widely shared. Many could be seen kneeling on the ground as sirens blared in the background. Those sharing the video claimed that this was a recent video from Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, where people ran as an attack was suspected. We found that this video was shared by many social media accounts and news channels back on October 10, 2023. These old posts stated that the video showed residents of Ashkelon in Israel fleeing before the deadline of 5 o'clock. Per reports, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had given residents of Ashkelon a deadline to leave before they launched an attack on the city in response to the targeting of civilians in the Gaza Israel's Ben Gurion Airport was shut down on June 13, and will remain closed until further regime on the run A video, this time allegedly from Iran, showed a fleet of cars approaching a plane at an airport. Sharing the clip, many claimed that this video showed families of Iran's Islamic Regime fleeing by private jets, sensing a threat from video, however, is both old and edited. It was shared on July 3, 2023, by a YouTube account stating that it was from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. Also, the original version did not feature the fleet of cars approaching the aeroplanes. That part seems to have been digitally edited into the viral soldiers surrender Another video making the rounds on social media purported to show Israel Defence Forces soldiers and pilots abandoning their posts and surrendering amid Iranian found this video on multiple X posts from November 6, 2024. These posts stated that the clip showed police officers in Tel Aviv's Ayalon dispersing protesters and extinguishing fires on the reports, a huge demonstration took place in Tel Aviv on November 5, 2024, in which hundreds of people blocked the Ayalon highway and set up two bonfires. The protest was against Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to dismiss Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Another video of the same incident, shot from a different angle, was also shared on X at the it's clear that these videos are not related to the present Iran-Israel Watch Want to send us something for verification? Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000 You can also send us an email at factcheck@
SBS Australia
5 days ago
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Netanyahu urged Iranians to unite against the regime. Could Israel's operation topple it?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Iranian people to rise up against the regime. Source: AP / Abir Sultan Just hours after Israeli fighter jets began striking Iranian nuclear facilities and air defence systems, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed to the Iranian people directly. "The Islamic regime, which has oppressed you for almost 50 years, threatens to destroy our country, the State of Israel," Netanyahu said. Israel's objective was to remove the nuclear and ballistic missile threat, he said, but added: "As we achieve our objective, we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom. "The regime does not know what hit them, or what will hit them. It has never been weaker. This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard," Netanyahu said. Three days of strikes between Iran and Israel have left dozens dead in both countries, as both sides warn of further attacks . Israel's attack targeted senior figures in Iran's military and scientific establishment, took out much of the country's air defence system and destroyed the above-ground enrichment plant at Iran's nuclear site. The scale of Israel's attacks, its choice of targets, and its politicians' own words suggest Israel's ambition could be to topple the regime itself. "One assumes that one of the reasons that Israel is doing that is that they're hoping to see regime change," said Michael Singh of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior official under President George W Bush. "It would like to see the people of Iran rise up," he said, adding that the limited civilian casualties in the initial round of attacks also spoke to a broader aim. The Israeli embassy in Washington insisted: "The future of Iran can only be determined by the Iranian people." "As a democratic country, the State of Israel believes that it is up to the people of a country to shape their national politics, and choose their government," the embassy told Reuters. Despite the damage inflicted by the unprecedented Israeli attack, decades of enmity toward Israel, it's unclear whether the Iranian people would follow Netanyahu's call. The strikes early on Friday hit not just Iran's nuclear facilities and missile factories but also key figures in the country's military chain of command and its nuclear scientists, blows that appear aimed at diminishing Iran's credibility both at home and among its allies in the region - factors that could destabilise the Iranian leadership, experts said. But Singh cautioned that no one knows what conditions would be required for an opposition to coalesce in Iran. Director of Deakin University's Middle East forum told Shahram Akbarzadeh told SBS News that Iranians who have long been unhappy with the conservative Islamic Republic leadership could rise up. "There is a chance of popular revolt and discontent in the country in protest to the deteriorating, fast deteriorating state of affairs in Iran, with leaders being killed," he said. "People are unhappy about not just the economic decline that's likely to come, but also the fact that they believe Iran doesn't need the war with Israel." Akbarzadeh said there will be many voices in Iran arguing that it should pursue the development of a nuclear bomb, to act in part as a deterrent to Israel attacking it. Many of Iran's 90 million people are unhappy with the country's weak economy, a lack of freedom of speech, women's rights, and minority rights. Unrest in 2022, known as the "Woman Life Freedom" movement took most of Iran, but failed to build a major lasting political opposition in the country. Jessica Genauer, senior lecturer in international relations at Flinders University, told SBS News that Israel sees an opportunity to further degrade a weakened Iran and potentially precipitate regime change. Those amongst Israel's nationalist right wing coalition government see this as Israel's best chance to escalate into a more direct war with Iran. "That might go on for some time until they actually see regime change in Iran," Genauer said. "If that were to actually take place and if regime change in Iran is actually the end goal of the current Israeli government, then I would say we are looking at escalation of this current phase of direct conflict in the medium to long-term, over coming months." Netanyahu has called for a change in Iran's government, including in September. The US government has given no indication that it seeks regime change in Tehran. The White House and Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York also did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter. While setting back Tehran's nuclear program would have value for Israel, the hope for undermining the regime could explain why Israel went after so many senior military figures, potentially throwing the Iranian security establishment into confusion and chaos, experts say. "These people were very vital, very knowledgeable, many years in their jobs, and they were a very important component of the stability of the regime, specifically the security stability of the regime," said Sima Shine, a former chief Mossad analyst and now a researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies. "In the ideal world, Israel would prefer to see a change of regime, no question about that," she said. But such a change would come with risk, said Jonathan Panikoff, a former US deputy national intelligence officer for the Middle East who is now at the Atlantic Council. If Israel succeeds in removing Iran's leadership, there is no guarantee the successor that emerges would not be even more hardline in pursuit of conflict with Israel. "For years, many in Israel have insisted that regime change in Iran would prompt a new and better day - that nothing could be worse than the current theocratic regime," Panikoff said. "But history tells us it can always be worse."
India Today
5 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Fact Check: NOT Iranians celebrating Israel's attack by dancing! This video is old
In response to Israel's Operation Rising Lion, which reportedly targeted Iran's nuclear facilities and top military officials, Tehran launched a wave of attacks on June 15 under Operation True Promise 3, killing at least 10 this, a video allegedly showed Iranians celebrating Israel's attack on its regime by taking to the streets was widely shared online. The video shot inside a tunnel showed people singing and dancing together as vehicles stood in long queues. The text inside the video read: 'Day 3 of war. Iranians dancing.' advertisementSharing a screenshot from this video, one person wrote, 'Iranians stuck in traffic on their way to Northern Iran start singing and dancing inside a tunnel to celebrate Israeli attacks on the Islamic Regime. Under the Islamic Regime, Iranians are prohibited from publicly dancing, singing, and being joyous.' India Today Fact Check, however, found that this video is from September 2023 and has nothing to do with the ongoing Israel-Iran ProbeReverse-searching keyframes from the viral clip led us to an extended version of it, shared on an Instagram post on September 12, 2023. Its description, in Persian, stated that people in Iran remained happy even during traffic, adding that heavy traffic had been reported on Iran's Chalus Road. It further credited the viral clip to an Instagram account named 'motor23__' advertisement View this post on Instagram A post shared by // (@iran_beautiful_ir)We then found the same video shared by the aforementioned Instagram account on September 9, 2023. The post contained a hashtag for Chalus. This account had shared another similar video well, showing people dancing in the same tunnel on September 9, 2023. The account's bio mentioned that its owner is from Qazvin, a province in videos were shared by many on social media at the time, mentioning that it is from the Chalus tunnel of Iran. then found a YouTube video of the Chalus tunnel, or the Kandovan Tunnel on the Chalus Road in Iran — a popular route connecting Karaj and Tehran to Chalus on the Caspian Sea. The tunnel in this YouTube video appears to be the same as that seen in the viral clip. It is noteworthy that contrary to the claim, videos from Tehran showed people celebrating Iran's retaliatory missile attack on Israel by waving flags and chanting slogans on the streets is thus, clear that a 2023 video of Iranians dancing in a tunnel amid traffic was falsely linked to the ongoing Israel-Iran Watch Want to send us something for verification? Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000 You can also send us an email at factcheck@
New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Iran's lies about its nuclear plans finally at an end
Iran's nuclear weapons strategy lies in tatters in the wake of this week's extensive, and ongoing, targeted Israeli strikes. Ever since the Islamic Regime's clandestine program to obtain a nuclear weapon was first exposed almost a quarter century ago, the ruling mullahs have pushed the fiction that their ambitions are exclusively peaceful. At the same time, they led the United States, Europe, and the International Atomic Energy Agency down a path of obfuscation and outright lies. Advertisement No more. Israel is in the early stages of a campaign that could last days or even weeks and will seek to set back this nuclear program years. Their targeting so far is an attempt to force the complete, irreversible dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program and, eventually, the radical Islamist regime behind it. Last night's attack struck all the systems, resources, and personnel who led Iran's drive for a nuclear weapons program: enrichment and storage facilities, missile launch sites, the nuclear scientists driving the research, and the military leaders responsible for implementing it. Israel targeted Iran's principal enrichment facility at Natanz for a second time, as well as the nuclear facilities at Fordow and Isfahan. Multiple floors at the Natanz facility have been destroyed, according to the Israel Defense Forces, including the main hall housing uranium-enriching centrifuges that provide the fuel for a nuclear weapon. Advertisement Israeli jets also struck hard at Iran's surface-to-surface missile array, seen in action on two separate occasions last year when Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel's population centers. Initial reports suggest that dozens of Iranian launchers, missile storage facilities, and other military sites have been destroyed. The fatality list among the nuclear program's military and scientific leadership is already devastating. Gone are the Iranian military's commander-in-chief, Gen. Mohammed Bagheri, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Gen. Hossein Salami, and the commander of the IRGC's Air Force, Gen. Amir Hajizadeh, along with several of his senior aides. Advertisement Gone too are nuclear researchers Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, and Mohammad Tehranji, a nuclear physicist who was based at the Azad University in Tehran. There can be no serious doubt that the leaders of the Islamic Republic have brought this disaster upon themselves. A mix of conceit and hubris gained from more than two decades of nuclear deception led them to believe that President Donald Trump's ultimatum – 60 days to make a deal or else face military action – wouldn't be followed through. Israel's preemptive strike took place on the 61st day. The Iranian regime has been deeply foolish. Since lending support to the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, the Iranians have lost their client regime in Syria, witnessed the destruction of their Hamas and Hezbollah proxies by the IDF, swallowed the decision of their Houthi allies in Yemen to end attacks on the US Navy and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and sustained two previous Israeli air strikes that wiped out their air defenses along with several missile factories. Advertisement Even so, as Israeli officials have emphasized again and again over the last 24 hours, this is far from over. Gauging the success of 'Operation Rising Lion' will be a complex task, but by targeting key military and scientific personnel alongside the physical infrastructure, Israel has eliminated key human assets integral to Iran's nuclear program, setting its development back years, not mere months. By deploying its significant imagery, signals collection, and human intelligence capabilities, Israel will be in a position to make an authoritative assessment of the operation over the coming days and weeks. Meanwhile, Israel is sensibly bolstering its home-front defenses and preparing its citizens for the inevitable attempted mass casualty attack. As hated as the Iranian regime is by its own people, there are no signs of imminent collapse. Further, as a member of the 'axis of aggressors,' Tehran can count on its allies in Russia, China, and North Korea to assist it militarily, economically, and diplomatically. Just last week, Iran ordered thousands of tons of ammonium perchlorate, a key ingredient in ballistic missile fuel, from a Chinese company in Hong Kong. The Chinese Foreign Ministry disingenuously claimed it had no knowledge of the transaction. Advertisement At this juncture, Israel and its allies have good reason to feel optimistic. Trump himself deemed the Israeli strikes 'excellent,' but the Trump administration's support needs to go beyond mere tweets and praise. Iran is actively threatening U.S. forces in the Middle East, and cannot be allowed to bolster its threats with nuclear weapons. The United States must quickly furnish Israel with any tools needed to finish the job – first-rate intelligence, offensive and defensive munitions, and THAAD missiles to counter the ballistic missile threat from Iran. And if Iran is foolish enough to strike out at the United States in retaliation for this, then America should respond with B-2 Stealth Bombers and Massive Ordinance Penetrators that would finish up the job on Iran's nuclear enrichment and storage assets. Advertisement Only then will Iran's insidious efforts to weaponize its nuclear program be consigned to the garbage can of history. Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery (retired) is a senior fellow and a senior director at the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Ben Cohen is a senior analyst with FDD and director of FDD's rapid response outreach.
