The Decades-Long US-Israeli Plan for Regime Change in Iran Is Taking Shape

The shaky and fragile ceasefire between Israel, and its US partner and benefactor, and Iran, continues to hold for now.

However, while the world remains apprehensive about what many believe was a dangerous military gamble by both Tel Aviv and Washington in their recent attacks on Iran, events are unfolding just as planned by both countries following a decades’ long plan by Washington and Tel Aviv neoconservatives.

In 1996 a policy document called A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, prepared by a study group led by American neoconservative Richard Perle, was presented to current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also Prime Minister at the time.

The plan called for regime change in North Africa and the Middle East which involved the overthrow of seven countries to be replaced by friendlier regimes that were more pliable to Israeli and American plans for domination and regional hegemony.

The plan was to target Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan before finishing off with Iran. The document argued that regime change was preferable to pursuing peace talks with the Arab world. 

Perle was formerly part of the Project for a New American Century which advocated for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, following the attack on New York’s Twin Towers, on false claims of possessing weapons of mass destruction.

While Iraq did not have such weapons, the goals of overthrowing Saddam Hussein was completed leaving a more fragile, divided country in its wake.

Desire for regime change is particularly pertinent to current Middle East developments as there are also ongoing discussions in both Israel and the US about whether to implement regime change in Iran and to pursue nuclear talks, following Israeli and American attacks on Iran and its nuclear sites in June.

Netanyahu would prefer regime change while US President Donald Trump earlier appeared to be open to further talks with Iran until recently taking a harder line and also raising the possibility of regime change.

Any overthrow of the Iranian Government could fuel further chaos in a region already destabilised by Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israeli premier and his extreme right-wing Government, comprising several ministers with criminal convictions and a fascist outlook, are succeeding in plans to destroy Gaza and ethnically cleanse its inhabitants just as outlined in an Israeli Intelligence Ministry plan produced just after Hamas’ 7 October plan in 2023.

Meanwhile, the ethnic cleansing of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank, and the defacto annexation thereof, continues at an accelerated pace with current settlements expanding and new ones being planned. 

This aligns with Netanyahu vowing to never recognise a Palestinian state. It also aligns with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee stating the US no longer endorses a two-state solution while continuing to supply weapons, billions in financial aid and uncritical political support to Israel.

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their property continues on a daily basis with three Palestinians killed by settlers in the last week alone. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports there have been thousands of attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers on Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of 2024 to the end of April 2025 alone. Over a thousand of these have involved fatalaties.

Regime change has also taken place in Syria following the installation of former ISIS affiliate, with a previous US $10 million bounty on his head, Ahmed Al-Sharaa as the new president. 

Israel provided support to Syrian rebels, many of them extremist Islamists, when they were fighting former Tehran-friendly President Bashar Al Assad and has also said it would like to divide the country along ethnic lines.

In Lebanon Iranian proxy Hezbollah has been neutered militarily by the Israel Defence Forces and sidelined politically as the US pushes for the organisation’s disarmament.

However, Netanyahu’s ultimate goal is regime change in Iran. He first warned in 1992, when he was a parliamentary member, that Iran was three to five years away from a nuclear bomb. Then in his 1995 book, Fighting Terrorism, Netanyahu warned that Iran was “five to seven years at most” from assembling a nuclear weapon.

In 2006, US General Wesley Clarke received a classified memo outlining a new military strategy of toppling seven countries over five years. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran were again perceived as being hostile to Israel and the US.

Netanyahu appeared before the UN in 2012 where he showed a drawing of how advanced Iran’s nuclear development was and warned that Tehran was less than a year away from a nuclear weapon.

And now with many of Israel’s regional enemies crippled the Jewish state would like to extend the Abraham Accords to beyond the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan and bypass the Palestinians completely.

However, with the ongoing slaughter in Gaza and the destruction and carnage in the West Bank it remains uncertain as to whether Saudi Arabia and Syria will sign on, especially as Israel says it will never leave the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

A further threat to possible future peace talks are the mixed signals as to how much damage was actually done to Iran’s nuclear facilities and whether Tehran will continue with fresh attempts to enrich uranium.

There are also reports of 400kg of missing enriched uranium that could have been removed from the nuclear facilities prior to Israel and the US’s attacks – or even afterwards – with satellite images of trucks parked near the entrances of the Fordow enrichment facility. 

Furthermore, the Iranian parliament recently voted to withdraw Iran’s membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while hardlines vowed to not cooperate with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors should they attempt reentry to Iran.

There is a belief in Iran that obtaining a nuclear weapon could protect Iran from further attacks on the basis of mutual deterrence.

However, the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Aragchi has not ruled out future talks with the US.

And as Netanyahu tries to prolong all of Israel’s wars, in an effort to avoid facing fraud and corruption charges, Trump has now threatened to withdraw the $3.8 billion that Washington provides Israel annually if Israel’s state prosecutor continues to push for Netanyahu to face justice.