Israel sought to kill Khamenei, but didn’t find an opportunity
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Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a circuit of interviews aired Thursday evening that Israel sought to eliminate Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during its 12-day conflict with Iran, but the opportunity never presented itself.
“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Channel 13, adding that Israel “searched a lot” for Khamenei but that the operational opportunity did not arise.
The minister made similar comments in interviews with Kan and Channel 12, in which he also said that Israel had an “enforcement policy” that involved maintaining aerial superiority over Iran and ensuring, via airstrikes if necessary, that the country does not restart its nuclear or long-range missile programs.
He also conveyed that Israel didn’t know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, and that it did not go into the war knowing the US would join the attack.
Katz said in the interviews that the Iranian leader had been marked for death, but that Israel was unable to locate him once he hid in a bunker: “Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.
Asked whether Israel had sought American approval for such an action, Katz told Channel 13: “We don’t need permission for these things.”
US President Donald Trump also threatened Khamenei’s life during the war, posting on social media on June 17: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”
But Trump reversed course just days later, saying that regime change was not advisable.
During the war, Katz had been particularly vocal about killing Khamenei, calling the supreme leader a “modern Hitler” who “cannot continue to exist.” He told Kan that Israel’s goal was not regime change but “upsetting the regime in the middle of the operation and pressuring the Iranians.”
But he told Channel 13 on Thursday that Israel will not continue to seek Khamenei’s life following the ceasefire that took hold two days earlier.
