Mossad Director David Barnea on Tuesday proclaimed at the Holocaust ceremony that his spy agency will not rest until it facilitates the fall of the Islamic regime in favor of a more free and less violent country.
“Our mission is not yet complete. We did not think that our mission would be completed immediately with the fading of the battles, but rather we planned, and [really] we planned to continue, and this will be manifested even after the time of attacks on Tehran,” said Barnea.
This was the first time that the Mossad chief publicly addressed his role and views about regime change in Iran.
After regime change failed to transpire in the early weeks of the war, and even after a ceasefire kicked in, various Israeli and American officials have sought to blame the Mossad and Barnea for the failure.
Mossad told US, Israeli officials that regime change can only come after Iran war
However, The Jerusalem Post has reported that the Mossad told both top Israeli and American officials that any potential regime change would only come after an Iran war, not in the middle of it.
Accordingly, the Mossad has rejected allegations that it has failed or that it tried to “sucker” the US into believing in delusions of regime change.
Barnea’s public statement was the latest indication that he still believes regime change is possible but that the war only helped set initial more favorable conditions for such a change and that significant additional work will be needed going forward.
Previously, Barnea had indicated that regime change was a real possibility within a year of the current war.
The Mossad chief’s speech appeared to be more of an attempt to set the historical record straight and possibly an institutional commitment, as opposed to a personal promise.
This is because Barnea is stepping down on June 1 to be replaced by Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, who currently serves as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary.
In other words, even if the Iranian regime falls in six or 12 months, it will be during Gofman’s term, not Barnea’s.
The Mossad director also referenced his agency’s achievements in helping warn and set back Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles program both in June 2025 and during the most recent 38-day Iran war.
Barnea openly acknowledged that the Mossad was a more junior partner to the IDF and the US military during the most recent war, while arguing it had been a very significant player in the June 2025 war.
During the recent war, the Mossad also used unusually public psychological warfare against the Islamic regime, openly recruiting Iranians to help it target the regime’s internal repression forces and calling the regime a house of cards that would soon fall.