WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted regime change is coming to Iran as he downplayed talk of any rift between him and President Trump.
Netanyahu told CNBC that it remains an “open question” on how the war with Iran will end but said Trump is weighing several options.
“We’ve wreaked a lot of damage to this regime, not destroyed it, but weakened it. We see the cracks propagating in the regime,” he said.
Regime change was key to end the war, he noted.
“We have to help the Iranian people to bring down this regime, and that hasn’t changed,” he said, conceding it won’t happen “exactly at the moment of our choosing.”
The prime minister held the line on Iran, warning them Israel and the US were prepared to launch another round of military strikes and cautioned them against “playing with fire.”
Tehran launched a deadly new attack in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday as the ceasefire talks have stalled.
President Trump told The Post’s Miranda Devine that the talks are “rapidly evolving” but cautioned the US may need to keep up its naval blockade on Iran through Labor Day
“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be [closed through Labor Day], but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” he said on the Pod Force One podcast out Wednesday.
Netanyahu echoed the comments, saying how the war ends remains “an open question, because the reality is open.”
“The president is weighing many options,” he told CNBC.
He also warned Tehran that Trump is “not a pushover” and asked them if they really wanted another round of military action with the United States and Israel.
“There is a tactical game that is being played, and Iran surely knows what the president has said,” he said, adding “US forces are ready. I think Iran should take that into account.”
“They’re playing with fire,” he noted. “That’s clear.”
The US military did bat down several drone attacks.
CENTCOM said the US shot down “three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters.”
It said American forces had also conducted what it described as “self-defense strikes” on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.
In the meantime, Netanyahu also dodged a question on whether Trump called him “f—ing crazy” in a phone conversation, which the president confirmed he did so in his Pod Force One interview.
“I’m not going to get into details of our conversations. We’ve had thousands,” the prime minister said.
He conceded he and Trump had “tactical disagreements,” adding: “We always find a way to work them out. And we do so as great friends.”
And he joked: “If you think this is a crisis, you should be in some other conversations.”
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