Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated Wednesday that his nation was not pursuing regime change in Iran, and its assault on Tehran was aimed toward eliminating its nuclear capabilities.

Chatting with CNBC’s Dan Murphy, Herzog stated that regime change was “not an official objective of ours,” and the objective was “to remove the Iranian nuclear program.”

Herzog, who accused Tehran of “cheating” and “rushing to the bomb,” added {that a} “change in [regime] can also bring peace in the region.”

The Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company in a assertion on June 9 urged Iran to “fully cooperate” with the company, or else it will “not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.”

On June 13, Israel launched a collection of airstrikes towards Iran, focusing on areas it stated had been associated to the nation’s nuclear program. Each side have since been buying and selling strikes.

“One has to be tough sometimes in order to remove imminent threats. That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Herzog advised CNBC, including that the strikes on Iran have had a real affect on its nuclear program.

U.S. president Donald Trump reportedly stated on Wednesday that Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb, placing him at odds with the testimony of his Nationwide Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard gave to the U.S. Congress in March.

“The IC [intelligence community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” Gabbard stated.

Earlier this week, the Group of Seven international locations expressed help for Israel, whereas condemning Iran as “the principal source of regional instability and terror,” and reiterated that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

This was in distinction to China’s stance. Within the aftermath of the Israeli assault, Chinese language International Minister Wang Yi stated that Beijing “explicitly condemns Israel’s violation of Iran’s sovereignty,” and stated that it helps Iran in “safeguarding its national sovereignty and defending its legitimate rights and interests.”

When requested if there was a diplomatic ramp off obtainable to de-escalate the state of affairs, Herzog stated “there is actually a lot of back channel. National talks and dialogue with world leaders is actually quite intensive.”