An analyst says Israel’s repeated pleas with the West to step up the pressure on the Islamic Republic stem from Tel Aviv’s ambitions for becoming the sole powerhouse in the region.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Thursday, Richard Becker of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), said Israel sees Iran as “a challenge to its hegemonic aspirations.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US congressional delegations where he repeated Tel Aviv’s nuclear accusations against Tehran and called for more sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Israelis call for “more of these really crippling and vicious economic sanctions against Iran and for other forms of pressure to be kept up on Iran really with the aim of maintaining their dominant position in the region,” Becker reiterated.

The expert further noted that Washington and Tel Aviv, as "the main base of US domination, [and] of US imperialism in the Middle East” are following the same path regarding Iran due to their common interests.

He said the US has been spearheading diplomatic, military and economic pressure on Iran to sow divisions with the ultimate aim of effecting a regime change in the Islamic Republic, and establishing a puppet government in Iran that would follow Washington's orders.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of potentially pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program and have used the unfounded accusation as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted toward military objectives.

Tel Aviv accuses Tehran of military nuclear activities while Israel is widely believed to be the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. It reportedly maintains between 200 and 400 atomic warheads, but under its policy of so-called nuclear ambiguity, it has never denied nor confirmed its possession of the weapons of mass destruction.

Furthermore, Tel Aviv has never allowed any inspection of its nuclear facilities and continues to defy international calls to join the NPT.