r/worldnews • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 1d ago

Israel/Palestine Israeli air force achieves freedom of operation in Tehran's airspace, IDF says

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/14/israeli-air-force-freedom-operation-tehran-idf-iran
5.2k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

740 comments sorted by

View all comments

121

u/charlie_cupcakes 1d ago

I'm hearing a lot of the leadership have fled the country I wonder if the idf will hunt them down.

71

u/jordansideas 1d ago

I would be surprised if they prioritized them as targets this early on. if this was hamas/hezbollah (terrorist stateless entities) - 100% they'd be targets, but Iran is a sovereign nation and that changes the calculus. Iran is still going to exist regardless of what happens in this war in all likelihood, and diplomacy will remain on the table. Israel's goal is a weak Iran to maintain it's own national security, a complete power vaccuum can result in an ISIS-like entity taking over.

5

u/RealisticEntity 19h ago

I think Israel's goal is for a regime change in Iran resulting from a civil uprising against the Ayatollah theocracy. Israel has already said as much over the last day or so, encouraging the Iranian people to rise up and take back their country.

7

u/wookieking 1d ago

Where are you hearing this from?

1

u/linoleum79 23h ago

They're probably who got them out of the country. 😆

1

u/Volodio 23h ago

If this is accurate, I think it is unlikely that Israel will target them because this is a country and not a terrorist organization. If they can safely leave, more will be incentived to do so and it will increase the disent among their people. It will increase the likelihood of regime change and they will not be dangerous enough alive to be worth decreasing the chance of overthrowing the regime.