Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the joint US-Israeli military operation against Iran, launched on 28 February, “will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands.”
“The time has come for all segments of the people of Iran… To throw off the yoke of tyranny (of the regime – ed.) and bring a free and peace-loving Iran to power,” the Israeli prime minister said.
According to the Israeli side, the operation is taking place in coordination with the United States. The US Defence Department said it is called Operation Epic Fury.
Iranian authorities have not yet publicly responded to Netanyahu’s statements.
Earlier, on February 28, the Israeli military launched strikes on Iranian territory, with explosions in Tehran, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
According to the Israeli side, “the attack was sudden”. At the same time as it began, the IDF sent out a nationwide warning urging citizens to stay close to secure premises.
“This is a preventive message to prepare the population for the possibility of rockets being launched towards the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
According to Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, the country has launched a “preventive military operation” against Iran, which “aims to neutralise the potential threat from Tehran as well as to prevent possible strikes on Israeli territory”.
A United States official confirmed America’s participation in the operation against Iran in comments to Radio Liberty. The US official says the airstrikes are still ongoing and are aimed at “weakening Iran’s security infrastructure”.
US leader Donald Trump later said America had launched a military campaign against Iran “to eliminate threats from the current regime”. He called the country’s leadership a “brutal group of people” whose activities pose a direct danger to the US, “our troops, our bases overseas and our allies around the world”.
Media reports said the Iranian official said the country is preparing to retaliate and “the response will be crushing.”
In 2015, a group of world powers reached a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran to prevent Iran from building an Iranian bomb. Western economic sanctions were relaxed at the time, but Iran began reneging after Donald Trump, during his first term as US president, withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
On 13 February, the US president said regime change in Iran would be “the best thing that could happen”.
He also confirmed that a second aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, would soon join the “massive” US armada in the Arabian Sea.
17 Feb US and Iranian officials met in Geneva, Switzerland, for a second round of talks on an agreement aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme and preventing war.
The two sides held indirect talks in early February in Oman, the first since Israeli and U.S. strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites during the brief conflict in June.
The talks come amid a significant U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. Tensions have been rising since massive nationwide protests in Iran last month, during which authorities launched a brutal crackdown that human rights groups say has left thousands dead.