Following unprecedented US and Israeli military strikes on Iranian territory, Israeli President Isaac Herzog urged Europe to support the campaign against the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah.
Against the backdrop of massive joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian military installations and a new Israeli ground incursion into southern Lebanon, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has described the widening military campaign against Iran as a "historic turning point."
DW Persian, the Persian-language service of the German state broadcaster, reports on an exclusive interview Herzog gave to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on March 16 from his official residence in Jerusalem. In the interview, Herzog asserted that "the defeat of the clerical government in Iran is in the interests of Europe's national security." He argued that after more than a generation of continuous warfare, bloodshed, and terror stemming from Tehran, the time has come to contain the root cause and fundamentally alter the region's trajectory.Herzog specifically pointed to the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program, claiming that Tehran had sought to increase its missile capacity tenfold—a capability he warned would pose a severe threat to Europe. According to DW Persian, Herzog emphasized the end of the era of lengthy dialogues and demanded practical action. Crucially, he expressed hope for an "uprising" by the Iranian people and called on the international community to back military operations against the Iranian government.
Iran International—a prominent anti-Islamic Republic opposition network—similarly highlighted Herzog's plea for European solidarity against Tehran's regional network. The channel emphasized his declaration that the time for action has arrived and that Europe must stand alongside the United States and Israel against the influence of the Islamic Republic and its regional "arms," particularly Hezbollah. Both sources note that Herzog's urgent appeal for Europe to support efforts to "destroy Hezbollah" coincides directly with the IDF's newly launched ground operations against the militant group in Lebanon.Both Persian-language sources emphasize Israeli President Isaac Herzog's direct appeal to Europe and the Iranian populace, bypassing traditional diplomatic rhetoric to explicitly call for regime change and the destruction of Hezbollah. The framing reflects the editorial stances of the outlets, with DW Persian providing a slightly more detailed summary of the AFP interview's claims on missile metrics, and Iran International focusing on the broader alignment of the US, Israel, and Europe against the Islamic Republic.