Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Wednesday, while visiting Israeli forces in Syria, that Iran's Islamic Republic was about to fall apart.
Netanyahu said overthrowing the Iranian government is the "main task ahead of us," and it is now "within reach", as reported by AFP.
"The main task is to bring down the terror regime in Iran. We are very close to that. We know that the entire axis will ultimately collapse," he said on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon on the Israel-Syria border during a visit with Defence Minister Israel Katz.
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Netanyahu stressed that "there is still work to be done", even though major harm has already been done to Iran's strategic military and nuclear capabilities as a result of combined US-Israeli strikes.
As both countries continue to engage in active military combat, these statements represent some of the clearest public language from Israeli leadership directly pushing for regime change in Tehran, greatly raising regional tensions.
Since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad administration, Israel has increased its military presence and operations inside southern Syria.
The Israeli military has established about 10 new bases, some of which are inside the buffer zone and farther into Syrian territory, according to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force.
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Due to worries over possible Turkish military placement, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Syrian military facilities, most recently on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northern Syria.
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