Israeli ambassador to US: strikes must degrade Iran until 'no power left' and Iranians can topple the regime

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter gave an interview on CNN on Day 23 laying out Israel's explicit war aims. KEY STATEMENTS: WAR AIMS: 'What we have to focus on now is degrading to the point where they have no power left in this regime. Hopefully, that will trigger this combustion point where the people are able to take charge of their own lives.' END STATE: Campaign ends when 'there is not an entity in Tehran that's going to threaten the region.' Possible via 'regime having a change of heart' (hard to imagine) or 'Iranian people have had enough.' REGIME CHANGE FRAMING: Compares expected outcome to Soviet Union collapse and Romania 1989. 'Nobody knew when the Soviet Union would collapse. Nobody knew when the Romanians would turn their guns against their government. But it happened at some point. And if we degrade them enough, the people of Iran are going to say, we've had enough.' BOOTS ON GROUND: 'I think that we need boots on the ground but they've got to be Iranian boots, and I think they're coming.' US-ISRAEL UNITY: 'The U.S. and Israel planned this operation together, we're executing it together, and we will bring this terror regime to its knees.' SIGNIFICANCE: This is the most explicit articulation yet of Israeli war aims going beyond military degradation to regime change. Combined with Trump's calls for the Iranian people to rise up, this signals a deliberate US-Israeli strategy of coupling military pressure with regime-change political warfare.