Israel and United States pursue Iran regime change without stating it as official war aim

Israel and the US pursue Iran regime change without declaring it, as mixed messages from Washington complicate a joint military campaign against Tehran.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 6, 2026, 9:15 AM EST

Source: The information in this article was sourced from The Times of Israe

The unstated objective at the heart of the campaign

Much of the unease surrounding the joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran centers on the question of what the operation is ultimately designed to achieve. Concerns have intensified among both supporters and critics of the campaign, particularly regarding whether regime change is a genuine objective. A senior Israeli official, speaking to The Times of Israel, was direct on Jerusalem's position: the goal is to remove the existential threat posed by the ayatollah regime, and that can best be achieved by removing the regime itself. The official added that the operation could open the door for the Iranian people to seize what he described as a generational opportunity to set their own destiny, expressing doubt that Iranians wish to replace one supreme leader with another.

Israel's consistent framing of war objectives

Israel has maintained a notably coherent public message throughout the first week of hostilities. Prime Minister's Office spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian, in the only government press briefing offered thus far, described the war aims as removing the existential threat against the United States, Israel, Europe, and countries in the Middle East, with particular emphasis on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. She consistently returned to a carefully worded formulation that has become a hallmark of Israel's public posture: that Israel is creating the conditions for the Iranian people to take charge of their own destiny. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reinforced this framing in a Tuesday interview with Fox News, stating that it is up to the people of Iran to change their government. In the opening hours of the campaign, Netanyahu called on Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Baloch, and Ahwazis to cast off what he described as the yoke of tyranny.

Mixed and shifting signals from Washington

The United States has offered a far less consistent picture of its intentions. Vice President JD Vance sought to reassure a domestic audience wary of prolonged military entanglements, asserting that President Donald Trump would not allow the country to enter a multiyear conflict with no clear objective. Vance defined the goal in the narrowest possible terms: ensuring Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon and commits permanently to abandoning any effort to rebuild that capability. Yet Trump himself has r...