Israel's Netanyahu suggests killing Iran's supreme leader would ‘end the conflict'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to rule out killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Monday, saying this would 'end the conflict.'
'It's not going to escalate the conflict; it's going to end the conflict,' Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News.
Iran and Israel have been trading blows since last week after the Israeli military began striking Iran's nuclear program and then assassinating top nuclear scientists and military generals.
Over the weekend, US officials were quoted as saying that President Donald Trump vetoed Netanyahu's plans to kill the Iranian supreme leader.
So far, the US has rejected Israeli requests to join the attacks on Iran; however, the US military continues to assist Israel in taking down Iranian missiles and drones.
Netanyahu said Israel was 'doing what we need to do' when asked if he would order the killing of Khamenei.
'We've had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere,' he said.
Netanyahu defended the Israeli campaign as preventing a forever war.
He also doubled down on previous remarks that the US should support Israel's current attacks. 'Today, it's Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it's New York,' he claimed.
Netanyahu played down reports on Monday that Iran had signaled to the US that it wanted to end the current round of fighting and accused Iran of 'stringing' the US along during the last few weeks of negotiations to reach a nuclear deal. Netanyahu said Iran wanted to keep building their nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile stockpile. 'They want to continue to create the two existential threats against Israel while they're talking. That's not going to happen,' he said.
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KANANASKIS, Alberta: President Donald Trump is abruptly leaving the Group of Seven summit, departing a day early Monday as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies and the US leader has declared that Tehran should be evacuated 'immediately.' World leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a series of global pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over Iran's nuclear program that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable ways. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran four days ago. At the summit, Trump warned that Tehran needs to curb its nuclear program before it's 'too late.' He said Iranian leaders would 'like to talk' but they had already had 60 days to reach an agreement on their nuclear ambitions and failed to do so before the Israeli aerial assault began. 'They have to make a deal,' he said. 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And they should talk and they should talk immediately before it's too late.' But by early Monday evening, as he planned to depart Kananaskis and the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Trump seemed willing to push back against his own supporters who believe the US should embrace a more isolationist approach to world affairs. It was a sign of the heightened military, political and economic stakes in a situation evolving faster than the summit could process. 'AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!' Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform. It's unclear how much Trump values the perspective of other members of the G7, a group he immediately criticized while meeting with Carney. The US president said it was a mistake to remove Russia from the summit's membership in 2014 and doing so had destabilized the world. He also suggested he was open to adding China to the G7. 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