Tel Aviv, April 14 -- Outgoing Mossad Director David Barnea said Israel's campaign against Iran will not be considered complete until the country's ruling system is replaced, delivering one of his clearest statements yet linking the ongoing conflict to the future of the Islamic Republic itself.

"Our commitment will be fulfilled only when this extremist regime is replaced," Barnea said at the intelligence agency's Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Tuesday. "That regime, which seeks our destruction, must pass from the world. Our mission has not yet been completed."

However, he stressed that the end of active fighting does not mean the mission is over, noting that operational planning had anticipated a prolonged conflict.

"We did not ...