Trump insists killing of Iran’s leaders ‘truly is regime change,’ deal to end war ‘could be soon’ |
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that the strikes against the top leadership of the Islamic Republic effectively amount to regime change, repeating a contention he first expressed upon announcing talks to end the war with Iran.
Trump said that those talks are progressing well, asserting that the Iranians had agreed to most US demands, and confirmed that Tehran would let a number of oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The broader Islamic Republic regime has not fallen, but Trump appeared to be trying to frame 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 seeking to work with Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, but he is closely tied to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and most analysts view him as no less hardline than 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 reiterated that he has been incommunicado. “He may be alive, but he’s obviously very seriously… wounded.”
The younger Khamenei was thought to be wounded in strikes on the first day of the war, when his father and other officials were killed.
Over the course of the 20-minute gaggle, Trump offered varying levels of optimism regarding the chances for 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,” he said.
“I think we’ll make a deal with them, but it’s possible that we won’t,” Trump continued. “I do see a deal in Iran. It could be soon.”
Trump went on to claim, without proof, that Iran has agreed to most of the US demands in Washington’s 15-point proposal for a deal to end the war.
Iran has yet to formally respond to the offer, though, even though US negotiators were hoping it would have done so by Friday.
“They’re going to give up nuclear weapons. They’re going to give us........