The Iranian people are likely to overthrow the Islamic Republic regime, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
"I think that we need boots on the ground, but they have got to be Iranian boots, and I think they're coming," Leiter said.
The ambassador added that "probably it's going to take place, because the Iranian people have had enough. They tried to raise up last month. They were brutally put down."
Leiter added, "There's a point of combustion. Look, nobody knew when the Soviet Union would collapse. Nobody knew when the Romanians would turn their guns against their Ceausescu government. But it happened at some point. And if we degrade them enough, the people of Iran are going to say we have had enough and we want a different regime."
The ambassador further explained that "what we have to focus on now is degrading [Iran] 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. Our focus has to be on degrading this regime to the point where they no longer pose a threat to us, to the region and to the world."
Leiter stressed that "we cannot allow this regime to move forward with nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and terrorists spreading throughout the region," adding that "we cannot live anymore with a country that is malign, that has intent on destroying us, that declares it's going to destroy us all the time and is now firing ballistic missiles into all of its neighbors. This has to stop."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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