Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had scheduled a mission in a “very small forum" to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader back in November 2025, the country’s defense minister, Israel Katz, revealed Thursday.
The 86-year-old Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes on Saturday, February 28 — with the event shaking the military and political leadership of Tehran.
Katz said the timeline for the strike was accelerated due to massive anti-regime protests in Iran, which led to conditions that were favourable for the US and Israel to carry out a high-intensity military operation in Tehran.
“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 Israel’s N12 TV news.
Initially, Katz said, Israel had planned to assassinate Khamenei in mid-2026, possibly in June. The defense minister said Israel did not share details of the plan with Washington.
Jerusalem was operating “under the assumption that we might have to carry it [the assassination] out on our own", he said.
The situation took a shift after anti-regime protests in Iran at the end of December and into January. Israel Katz revealed it was during this time that a “kind of dialogue" developed between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.
The uprising led to a massive unrest in Iran, with thousands of demonstrators descending to streets to protest against the Khamenei-led regime. Katz said both Israel and United States were taken aback by the scale of protests in Tehran.
The situation created fears in Israel that the Iranian leadership might launch a pre-emptive strike against Israel even before Jerusalem could act.
“It surprised everyone. The unrest didn’t just create an opportunity, there was also serious concern at the time that, because of the pressure on the regime from the protests, the regime might launch a preemptive missile strike on Israel and on American forces in the region," he stated.
Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News
