Panetta Is Complicit In Iran War

Panetta's Role in the Leadup to War

Panetta Praised Netanyahu's Attack on Iran in 12-Day War in 2025

In July, 2025, Jimmy Panetta spoke about how Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu must be feeling about the war:

"I mean, this is a legacy defining victory. I mean, seriously. I mean, it really is. I mean, not just with this, but then going backwards from here, uh, you know, wiping out Hamas, uh, decapitating Hezbollah..."

Panetta Advocated Regime Change in Iran

In April 2025, Rep. Jimmy Panetta introduced a bill in Congress to fund regime change in Iran. The text of the bill calls for the United States to confiscate Iranian government funds and use those funds to “provide maximum support to persons and entities within Iran which are working for a transition to a democratic government.”

Alignment with Trump on Iran

Under President Obama, the Unites States, along with the European Union (EU), China, France, Russia, Germany and the U.K., negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran. Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program to non-military uses and allow inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency. In exchange, the UN and the EU lifted sanctions on Iran. The US also lifted some sanctions on Iran.

In 2018, President Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and imposed more severe sanctions on Iran, the so-called “maximum pressure campaign”. In Trump’s second term in March 2025, he restored the maximum pressure campaign. Panetta's bill was in alignment with Trump's approach.

“If we want to rein in a Trump administration that launched an illegal war against Iran, we should also rein in the Netanyahu administration that’s doing exactly the same thing with American taxpayer dollars.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen