The reasons for recent U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran are widely debated among European observers. Jonathan Peled, Israel’s ambassador to Italy, explained Israel’s position in an interview with the newspaper La Ragione. He said that simple deterrence was no longer sufficient to contain the Iranian threat for two main reasons. First, he argued, the nature of the Iranian regime and its nuclear and missile capabilities present a concrete danger. According to Peled’s account of IAEA findings, Iran’s nuclear program has progressed beyond mere declarations and enrichment thresholds have been passed, making the prospect of a nuclear weapon a realistic scenario. For Israel, this is not an abstract risk but a threat to its very existence. At the same time, Tehran has continued to develop an increasingly advanced missile arsenal able to strike well beyond the Middle East; Peled noted recent incidents affecting Cyprus, Turkey and even the Western base at Diego Garcia, and warned that Europe and other Western countries, including Rome, could be affected. He described Iran’s intent to target Western interests as evident.

Peled also said that for years the Iranian regime has been a central actor in financing and promoting international terrorism. Through militias and proxy forces, Tehran has destabilized regions, fueled conflicts and suppressed democratic movements. He summarized the concern as a combination of nuclear capabilities, missile forces and support for terror that together constitute a systemic threat.

The second reason, Peled explained, concerns the goals of the military operation. He stressed that this was not a classic externally imposed “regime change” aimed at shaping Iran’s political future; Israel does not intend to dictate who governs Iran. Instead, the operation sought to dismantle the mechanisms of fear, violence and repression that the regime used to maintain control. According to Peled, key strategists and security figures were neutralized, including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, influential power-broker Ali Larijani, and the Basij militia commander Gholamreza Soleimani, who oversaw paramilitary repression of public protests. The targeted removal of the regime’s repressive core – its command structures, coercive apparatus and systems for suppressing dissent – was presented as intended to create space for Iran’s civil society to pursue its own future without the threat of terror, torture and arbitrary detention, with the long-term aim of enabling a more stable, peaceful country that respects the rights and freedoms of its people.