Israel Tries to Encourage Iranians to Take to the Streets Against the Regime

JAKARTA - An Israeli official said his country's current focus in its military operation in Iran is to weaken the Tehran regime to the point of its overthrow, adding that Israel "acts in its own way" to encourage Iranians to take to the streets.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate on what tactics Israel might use to encourage Iranians to protest the regime, Al Arabiya reported (2/3).

Earlier, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that 48 Iranian leaders had been killed in the US-Israeli bombing in the country, calling the attack "very positive."

"No one believes in the success we have achieved, 48 leaders have been killed in one attack. And this is going fast," President Trump said as quoted in an interview by Fox News.

As previously reported, Israel and the United States launched an attack on the capital Tehran and a number of cities in Iran on Saturday.

Quoted from ABC, the United States dubbed the operation "Operation Epic Fury" while Israel called it "Operation Roaring Lion."

President Trump claimed overall success in the war, which aimed to remove Iran's leadership and destroy its military. Iran has confirmed the death of its highest leader, Ali Khamenei.

"We're doing our job not just for ourselves but for the world. And everything is going faster than schedule," President Trump said in a separate interview with CNBC.

"Right now everything is developing very positively, very positively," he said.