JERUSALEM ¨C Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered on a careerlong ambition to topple Iran¡¯s leadership, but his lockstep alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump faces a test as their joint military campaign threatens to drag on, with its goals potentially shifting in the coming weeks.
At the outset of the bombing campaign on Saturday, both Trump and Netanyahu said regime change was the goal. But in remarks at the White House on Monday, two days after Israeli airstrikes killed Iran¡¯s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of his leadership, Trump did not mention overthrowing Iran¡¯s government as his top priority.
The U.S. goal, he said, was to destroy Iran¡¯s missiles and navy, and to stop it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. His Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said at a news conference that same day that the operation was not a ¡°so-called regime-change war.¡±
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