Trump Signals He Would Kill All Potential Successors to Khamenei
Washington — US President Donald Trump indicated he would continue striking Iran by killing all potential successors to the current Iranian leadership. The remarks were described as among the vilest statements about the United States and its ally Israel’s aim to replace the regime in Iran.
The United States and Israel will continue their war against Iran, the president said. Trump added that Tehran’s leadership is now in disarray. ‘We are in a very strong position now, and their leadership is weakening. Anyone who seems to want to become a leader, in the end, will die,’ he said in a televised address from the White House on Wednesday.
The US leader said Iran would have nuclear weapons if he had not revoked the Obama-era nuclear deal years ago. He praised the US-Israel war against the Islamic Republic, saying they are in a ‘very strong position.’
‘This is an extraordinary thing happening right before your eyes because for 47 years we have been played and we should not have done so,’ he said. ‘We are making extraordinary progress. Their missiles have been destroyed… This is an extraordinary display of military power.’
So far, Mojtaba Khamenei has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his father, as Iran’s new leader. The former supreme leader’s son is believed to be alive after his wife Zahra Haddad Abdel also died in the US-Israel attack.
Mojtaba Khamenei was born in Mashhad in 1969, a decade before the Iranian Revolution. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was deposed, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over as the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Trump’s remarks last night also indicated unclear aims of the US strike on Iran. The stated reasons have frequently shifted. Initially cited as a move to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; later, plans for Israel to strike Iran first.
Most recently, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Trump has a ‘hunch, based on facts, that Iran will attack the United States’ and its assets in the Middle East.
‘He is determined to launch Operation Epic Fury based on all these grounds, and I want the media to report everything truly, rather than simply quoting officials and saying, “Oh, they oppose the other side,”’ Leavitt said. She added, ‘This decision was not made in a vacuum.’ ‘The President will strike first, together with Israel, and that is clearly the right and effective decision,’ Leavitt said.