Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that Israel's attacks during last month's 12-day war were intended to weaken the Islamic republic's system and spark unrest to topple it.

Hardline ideologues, who advocate for perennial enmity with the west, have railed against the possibility of re-engaging with the US and attacked Iran’s reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian, who this week suggested he remained amenable to negotiations with Washington.

Critics feared it would plunge the Middle East into a wider war. That doomsday scenario has not come to pass, at least for now: Iran made only symbolic retaliation against America; soon after, a ceasefire ended the fighting between Iran and Israel.