Netanyahu: Iran regime change will come a ‘lot sooner than people think’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday told Iranians that regime change was looming.

“When Iran is finally free, and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think — everything will be different,” Netanyahu said in a video statement addressed to Iranians, in which he lambasted the “fanatic theocrats” who rule the country.

“Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace. Our two countries, Israel and Iran, will be at peace,” he added.

Netanyahu’s video message comes amid rising tensions and fears of all-out regional war in the Middle East after an Israeli airstrike on Beirut late Friday killed Hezbollah leader and top Iranian ally Hassan Nasrallah. It followed an earlier remote-controlled attack that detonated pagers carried by Hezbollah members, killing dozens and disrupting the group’s communications. Israel has also carried out airstrikes in Lebanon.

Netanyahu said that Iran’s leaders support the “rapists and murderers of Hamas and Hezbollah,” but “Iran’s tyrants don’t care about the future of the Iranian people” and the country “deserves better” leadership.

“There are tens of millions of decent and good people with thousands of years of history behind them, and a brilliant future ahead of them. Don’t let a small group of fanatic theocrats crush your hopes and dreams. You deserve better. Your children deserve better. The entire world deserves better,” Netanyahu said.

“The people of Iran should know, Israel stands with you. May we together know a future of prosperity and peace,” he said.

Netanyahu has been waging war on Hamas militants in Gaza in retaliation for the group’s violent attack on Israel last October. He has also overseen an expansion of Israeli military operations in the West Bank, and in Lebanon in recent weeks targeting Hezbollah, an Iran-backed political movement and militant group based in Lebanon.