Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that targeting Iran`s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would end, not escalate, the ongoing fight between Israel and Iran that erupted late last week.

When asked by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl about reports from ABC News and other outlets that President Donald Trump rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader, concerned that it would escalate the conflict, Netanyahu said, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it`s going to end the conflict”.

"We"ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere," Netanyahu said. "The `forever war` is what Iran wants, and they"re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil."

Asked if Israel would indeed target the supreme leader, Netanyahu said that Israel was "doing what we need to do": "I`m not going to get into the details, but we`ve targeted their top nuclear scientists. It`s basically Hitler`s nuclear team".