Israel’s Netanyahu suggests killing Iran’s supreme leader would ‘end the conflict’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to rule out killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Monday, saying this would “end the conflict.”

“It’s not going to escalate the conflict; it’s going to end the conflict,” Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News.

Iran and Israel have been trading blows since last week after the Israeli military began striking Iran’s nuclear program and then assassinating top nuclear scientists and military generals.

Over the weekend, US officials were quoted as saying that President Donald Trump vetoed Netanyahu’s plans to kill the Iranian supreme leader.

So far, the US has rejected Israeli requests to join the attacks on Iran; however, the US military continues to assist Israel in taking down Iranian missiles and drones.

Netanyahu said Israel was “doing what we need to do” when asked if he would order the killing of Khamenei.

“We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere,” he said.

Netanyahu defended the Israeli campaign as preventing a forever war.

He also doubled down on previous remarks that the US should support Israel’s current attacks. “Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York,” he claimed.

Netanyahu played down reports on Monday that Iran had signaled to the US that it wanted to end the current round of fighting and accused Iran of “stringing” the US along during the last few weeks of negotiations to reach a nuclear deal. Netanyahu said Iran wanted to keep building their nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile stockpile. “They want to continue to create the two existential threats against Israel while they’re talking. That’s not going to happen,” he said.