US President Donald Trump hailed the strikes against the Iranian leadership on Sunday, stating that the elimination of such a significant chunk of the Islamic Republic’s leading figures of authority, effectively amounted to an indirect form of regime change, despite Tehran scoffing at all of Trump’s attempts to settle the conflict.
Claiming that negotiations with Tehran are progressing well, Trump asserted that the Iranians had agreed to most of the US’ demands, and confirmed that Tehran would let a number of oil tankers pass through the effectively paralysed Strait of Hormuz.
While a power void is growing within the Islamic Republic, its current regime is still very much intact and is far from fallen, despite Trump’s attempts to establish the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other top officials in air strikes as tantamount to the collapse of the old government.
“The one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead. The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime — we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before… and frankly, they’ve been very reasonable,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The US has been eyeing Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to assume the mantle of leadership, though he is closely tied to the country’s powerful, theocratic militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with most analysts being quite sceptical of the notion of his leadership, viewing him as little more than a hardline Islamist, similar to those who were killed, and those who were unwilling to accept US demands to date.
“It truly is regime change… you can’t do much better than that,” Trump claimed.
As for Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei’s son, whom Iranian clerics selected to replace his father as supreme leader, Trump dismissed him as too green, and reiterated Washington reports that he was completely underground, saying “He may be alive, but he’s obviously very seriously… wounded.”
While Mojtaba was confirmed to have been wounded in a US strike, the full extent of his injuries is not known, though Iranian officials confirmed that he is alive, in good health, and very much in working condition, suffering light injuries, while Washington claims that while alive, he was more than likely incapacitated.
Over the course of the 20-minute gaggle with journalists, Trump expressed much optimism over his chances of reaching a deal with Iran.
“We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation. But you never know with Iran, because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”
I think we’ll make a deal with them, but it’s possible that we won’t,” Trump said, adding “I do see a deal in Iran. It could be soon.”
Trump went on to claim – without proof – that Iran had agreed to most of Washington’s demands in Trump’s 15-point peace proposal for a deal to end the war.
While Iran is yet to formally respond to the offer, though, even as US negotiators were hoping it would have done so by Friday, it did scoff at the offer earlier, and outright mocked Trump for being delusional.
“They’re going to give up nuclear weapons. They’re going to give us the nuclear dust,” Trump said, referring to Iran’s vast stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium, and threatening the Islamic Republic, added “They’re going to do everything that we want to do, [and] they’re going to go on and maybe have [and] great country again. But if they don’t do that, they’re not going to have [and] country.”
Asked about a potential ground operation against Iran, Trump declined to comment, though seemingly remained non-committal, insisting that the war was “weeks” ahead of schedule, even as the war has entered its fifth week, and is said to likely far outstrip Washington’s expectations given timeline of four to six weeks.
