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Israel’s ongoing attacks on Iran have raised questions about whether Israel is trying to force regime change in Iran, according to two U.S. officials and another source familiar with the latest intelligence. That has long been a broad goal within the Israeli government, according to a recent U.S. intelligence assessment.
Although there is no direct intelligence to suggest that this was Israel's primary goal with this attack, the source familiar with the intelligence said that some US officials believe that Israel saw it as a possible opportunity to do so. One of the US officials said it was not clear whether the Trump administration would support Israel in this effort.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the strikes were aimed at disrupting Iran's capabilities and removing the threat of destruction from Israel.
"We are at a critical point where, if we don't get there, we will have no way to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons that will threaten our existence. We have been dealing with Iran's representatives for the past year and a half, but now we are dealing with the head of the snake itself," he said.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon, nor has the Supreme Leader authorized a nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.
The US had a relatively clear picture of the scope of the Israeli operation as early as last week, when some intelligence officials were already receiving multiple updates every day and planning for different eventualities depending on how Iran would react, according to a source with direct knowledge of this planning.
This person said that, although Israel minimized sharing information with the United States, as of last week, the US understood the objectives and sequence of operations - even if the extent of the damage to Iran, including losses to its leadership, and the question of how Iran would react, remained unknown.
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