Israel wanted to kill supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the 12-day war with Iran but despite searching for him the opportunity did not arise, the Israeli Defence Minister has said.
Israel Katz told Channel 13 in an interview broadcast on Thursday: "If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out." He added that Israel had searched for Mr Khamenei but no chance to kill him materialised.
Mr Katz said the supreme leader had been designated a target but the Israeli military was unable to locate him when he went into hiding in a bunker. "Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders," Mr Katz told the Kan broadcaster.
Israel killed several top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists on June 13 at the start of the war. Asked whether it had asked the US for approval to carry out the assassination, Mr Katz said "we don't need permission for these things".
The Israeli minister had been vocal about killing Mr Khamenei throughout the war that ended after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on Tuesday. Mr Katz referred to the Ayatollah as a "modern Hitler".
Over the course of the war, Mr Trump also threatened the Mr Khamenei. “We know exactly where the so-called supreme leader is hiding," he said on his Truth Social account, describing the Ayatollah as an “easy target". The US President later changed his rhetoric and said regime change was not an objective.
The US joined Israel's war and launched strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, with Mr Trump declaring the "total obliteration" of its programme. However, US media outlets have since disputed the claims, citing leaked classified intelligence that Iran's nuclear programme had been set back by only a few months.
Mr Katz, however, claimed Iran's nuclear ambitions had been set back by years. “It will take them long years but we won’t let that happen,” he said.
He said Israel had not known before the war that the US would join the attack. He added that Israeli intelligence was not aware of all the locations of Iran's enriched uranium but claimed the military had destroyed all Tehran's enrichment capabilities.
“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be taken out,” he said of the uranium. “We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten long-range missiles."
While Israel will no longer seek to kill Mr Khamenei, the Defence Minister said his military maintained aerial superiority over Iran and that it could strike again. He said Israel's policy would be "like in Lebanon" where it continues to strike despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah agreed on in November.
But Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said "third parties” had been instructed to pass on the message that Tehran would not tolerate a resumption of hostilities.
“I clearly said 'tell them that Iran is not Lebanon and if they violate the ceasefire, we will respond'.”
