Symbolic imageNetanyahu calls for Iran regime's fall as Hormuz stays shut and talks stall
Netanyahu said on Wednesday he has told the IDF and Mossad to overthrow Iran's regime. Iran says Hormuz stays closed until the US accepts its terms.
On Wednesday, 21 October, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter, that the IDF had prepared a multi-day bombing campaign for the weekend of 10 October, including power plants and nuclear sites, but shelved it because Trump opposes reopening the war before the US midterms on 3 November. Netanyahu told officer cadets that his directive to the IDF and Mossad is to overthrow the regime, and said Trump shares that aim. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had visited Israel unannounced on Monday.
Hormuz stays closed
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iraqi state television that the strait will not open to everyone until an understanding is reached, while indirect talks via Pakistan and Qatar continue. In the FT he wrote that Iran has passed Washington a seven-day plan that would reopen it on Day 6.
Uranium blocks a deal
Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei said not a particle of enriched uranium will leave Iran, while Trump demands zero enrichment. Tehran calls enrichment a right under the NPT and wants the US blockade lifted, sanctions waived and frozen assets released.
Other opinions
Jerusalem Post sources deny the FT's premise: no strike was ordered for 10 October, so Trump could not have blocked one, and they suspect a leak meant to sway the Israeli election.