Are Trump, Netanyahu trying to topple Iranian regime?

“The president is reciting the prime minister’s speech,” was the oft-heard reaction in Jerusalem following President Donald Trump’s May 8 announcement that he was pulling the United States out of the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers. It is hard to describe the euphoria in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s circles and among members of the right-wing coalition government after Trump, in his own voice, presented the main points of the policy that Netanyahu had advocated for years in endless speeches and appearances in the international arena. The US withdrawal was perceived as a tremendous Israeli victory, the very realization of a longed-for dream made possible by a supportive American president who perceives the Middle East the same way as Netanyahu does and is deeply influenced by Netanyahu.

A similar reaction was heard this week, too, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered his landmark May 21 speech laying out US demands of Iran on nuclear and other policy issues. They included demands that the Israeli leadership has long been articulating, among them the unambiguous call for Iran to pull its forces out of Syria. Iran’s military involvement in Syria is at the crux of the recent escalation on this front, which went as far as the first direct military clash between Israel and Iran on the ground in Syria and in its airspace.

This time, too, the same refrains were heard in Jerusalem: Pompeo is reiterating the main points of Israel’s policy, the braggarts boasted. This time, however, there are other versions, too.

A top Israeli defense official speaking this week with Al-Monitor said the Americans had decided to go full force for the head of the Iranian regime. They know well that Pompeo’s 12 demands are a nonstarter as far as the Iranians are concerned. Pompeo did not say so explicitly, but it is clear that Washington is aiming for regime change in Tehran and is going at it at full throttle. According to the official, this is a direct American interest and is not necessarily a response to Israel’s needs. We are not fully involved in this. We know how to take care of ourselves, and we are not in danger, said the source. The Americans are concerned about their other allies in the Middle East.

If you follow the map for a minute, you’ll see there is hardly a place in the Middle East and the region in which the Iranians are not endangering US allies or interests, said the official, who then went on to elaborate. Look what’s happening now in Iraq. The Americans invested huge amounts of money and energy in Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and failed. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, is personally dealing with the Iraqi issue, trying to form a coalition uniting all the Shiite factions, except for Iraqi Shiite religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr, to confront American interests. The same goes for Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Bahrain. Wherever the Americans look, they find the Revolutionary Guard behind them, trying to “pinch” US allies. It’s even happening in Afghanistan through the Taliban. Afghanistan and Iraq — the two places where the Americans poured vast sums of money, endless energy and quite a few US soldiers’ lives — are now unstable, mostly due to Iranian activity. So the US administration decided that enough is enough, and they are fighting back with all they have.