The elimination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a “turning point” in the joint Israeli-U.S. campaign against Iran, but the fighting “will not be stopped even a moment before the objectives are achieved,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared following a situational assessment on Sunday.
“Yesterday’s elimination of the greatest persecutor of the Jewish people of this era, Khamenei, is extremely significant,” Katz told senior Israel Defense Forces officials during the assessment at the Kirya military headquarters in central Tel Aviv.
Khamenei “was the one who led the campaign of destruction against the State of Israel—he built the entire axis of evil around us, and within Iran itself, he led an uncompromising line against the State of Israel,” he said.
“His elimination, along with many other senior and significant officials who were eliminated together with him, is a turning point” Katz stated.
In addition, “once all objectives are achieved,” Operation “Roaring Lion” will be considered “a turning point in removing threats against the State of Israel,” the defense minister continued.
According to Katz, the fighting “will continue for as long as necessary—it will not be stopped even a moment before the objectives are achieved.”
Katz expressed his appreciation to all IDF branches involved in the war, as well as Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which he said made “exceptional and extraordinary preparations compared to any operation the State of Israel has certainly carried out in the past, especially during wartime.”
He also thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Katz said had demonstrated his “leadership and determination in guiding this effort,” including by “establishing diplomatic ties and an alliance with the United States and the president of the United States.”
Katz expressed confidence that the joint Israeli-U.S. efforts would “lead to the outcome we seek—that the Iranian people will be able to remove this regime for themselves, and in doing so also for us, for the entire region, and for the whole world.”
Khamenei, 86, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli opening strike that targeted his fortified compound in Tehran on Saturday morning.
The elimination came as Israel and the United States launched preemptive strikes against the Islamic Republic to neutralize the threat Tehran poses to the Jewish state, American and the broader region.
The Iranian regime in response fired many dozens of ballistic missiles at the Jewish state and Gulf states, killing two and wounding many others, with sirens continuing to blare across the region on Sunday afternoon.
