Israel made the decision to kill Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in November, and was planning to carry out the operation around six months later, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.
“Already in November we were convened with the prime minister in a very tight forum and the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told N12 News, adding that the timing was set for mid-2026.
The plan was eventually shared with the Washington and brought forward around January after protests broke out Iran, when Israel was concerned its pressured clerical rulers might launch an attack against Israel and US assets in the Middle East, Katz said.
Khamenei was killed in the first hours of Operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury that began on Saturday in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike.
Israel has said its aim is to eliminate the existential threat it sees in Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile project, and to bring about regime change. Iran’s rulers have so far shown no sign of relinquishing power.