Benjamin Netanyahu on Syria visit says ‘very close’ to toppling Iran’s Islamic republic

Jerusalem – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to Israeli troops in southern Syria on Sept 9 that Iran’s Islamic republic was on the verge of collapse, as fighting in the six-month Middle East war intensifies.“There is still work to be done – the main task is to bring down the terror regime in Iran. We are very close to that. We know that the entire axis will ultimately collapse,” he said on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon on the Israel-Syria border, during a visit with Defence Minister Israel Katz.In southern Syria, Israeli forces have been stationed in a “security zone” since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.They occupy what was previously a buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan since 1974.“We will not allow any terrorist army to establish itself on our border,” Netanyahu reiterated on Sept 9.Katz visited Israeli troops stationed in southern Syria two weeks ago, prompting condemnation from Damascus, which denounced a “flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the fall of Assad and made repeated incursions into Syrian territory.Officials have also repeatedly vowed to keep troops in the security zone, where Israel is seeking a broader demilitarised area.Netanyahu’s threats against Iran come as Tehran and Washington are locked in a stalemate over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with both sides trading attacks in the past week, six months into the war that the US and Israel launched against the Islamic Republic at the end of February. AFP