(Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the change or fall of Iran’s leadership was not a goal of Israel’s attacks but could be a result.
“The matter of changing the regime or the fall of this regime is first and foremost a matter for the Iranian people. There is no substitute for this.
“And that’s why I didn’t present it as a goal. It could be a result, but it’s not a stated or formal goal that we have,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Kan public television.
He said Israel had the power to remove all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, whether U.S. President Donald Trump decides to join in or not.
Netanyahu spoke before the White House said Trump would decide in the next two weeks whether to get involved.
Military analysts believe Israel might need the help of U.S. military bunker-busting bombs to destroy the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, the crown jewel of Iran’s nuclear program buried beneath a mountain near the city of Qom.
Asked whether Fordow could be addressed with or without the Americans, Netanyahu said: “We have the power to remove all our targets, all their nuclear facilities, but the president’s decision whether he wants to join or not is again his decision.
“He will do what is good for the United States and I will do what is good for the State of Israel and I must say that up to this moment everyone is doing their part,” Netanyahu said.
On Wednesday, Trump said the United States alone had the capability to destroy or dismantle Fordow. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it – at all,” Trump said.
(Reporting by Howard Goller; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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