Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday that "regime change" can be the only future for Iran, where mass protests against the clerical authorities have faced a deadly crackdown.
Demonstrations initially sparked by economic grievances turned into a movement against the theocracy that has ruled Iran since 1979.
People poured into the streets for several days from January 8, but the demonstrations appear for now to have petered out in the face of what activists describe as a crackdown under the cover of a blanket internet shutdown.
"The Iranian people are yearning for change. The Iranian people deserve change," Herzog said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"The future for the Iranian people can only be in a regime change, and that has to be... within the realms of the Iranian people and the international community and its support," he added.
He added saying that the Iranian “regime is in quite a fragile situation."
The Iranian Republic's long-time foe Israel has expressed support for the protesters, without suggesting it would intervene.
Iran accused Israel in early January of trying to undermine its national unity after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel stood "in solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people".
Iranian authorities on Wednesday said 3,117 people were killed during the protests that first erupted in late December, but activists said the actual toll risked being many times higher.
Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war last year, after Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as well as residential areas, saying it aimed to cripple the Iranian republic's atomic research and ballistic missile capabilities.
