Israeli PM Naftali Bennett wishes Iranians ‘regime change’ for Persian New Year
- Israel considers Iran an ‘existential threat’ and the countries have been at loggerheads since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah
- Bennett’s remarks also come as Israel has vehemently opposed the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday said he hoped for a change of political regime for the people of arch-enemy Iran, in a message marking the Persian New Year, or Nowruz.
“Nowruz literally means ‘new day’. And that’s my greatest wish to you, the Iranian people: that you will see a new day – a day of freedom from the cruel Iranian regime,” he said in a video message in English.
Israel considers Iran an “existential threat” and the two countries have been at loggerheads since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah.
Bennett’s remarks also come as Israel has vehemently opposed the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The deal granted the Islamic republic much-needed sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme, but started unravelling after the US unilaterally pulled out in 2018.
On Friday, Bennett had appealed to the US not to remove Iran’s Revolutionary Guards from its blacklist of foreign terrorist organisations as part of a renewed deal.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “is a terrorist organisation that has murdered thousands of people, including Americans”, he said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.