Regev says Israel removed Iran's nuclear threat despite uncertainty over war's outcome

Transportation Minister and cabinet member Miri Regev said Israel’s second war with Iran achieved major security gains, even though the final results remain unclear. In an interview with Moran Azulay on Ynet, she argued that the Tehran regime is weaker than ever and that the talks held this week in Switzerland between the United States, Iran and the mediating countries have not changed the basic outcome on the ground.

Regev insisted that Iran will not get nuclear weapons. "We removed the threat, Iran will not have a nuclear program. Period," she said, adding that President Donald Trump says the same thing clearly. She said Israel had removed what she described as the existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles.

Azulay pushed back, saying the situation is more complicated than Regev’s account. She noted that only a year earlier they had spoken optimistically a month after Operation "With All His Might," but that Israel is now after a much larger operation in which Iran still has ballistic missiles, the regime survived and grew stronger, proxy forces remain active, and the United States is moving toward a deal with the ayatollahs.

Regev replied that the government never set regime change as an operational goal. "We never said at any stage that we want to topple the regime," she said, explaining that the cabinet approved removal of the nuclear threat, removal of the ballistic missile threat, and giving the Iranian people tools to bring down the regime. She said Israel hit most of the factories producing ballistic missiles, but acknowledged that missile capability would remain if the regime stays in power. Regev said toppling the regime would be best for both the Iranian people and the world, but added that the people have not yet overcome their fear, and that the tools given may still not be enough.