US President Donald Trump wants to be involved in choosing a new leader for Iran. Photo / The White House, AFP
Donald Trump has said there will be no deal with Iran unless it involves Tehran’s “unconditional surrender”.
The US President said yesterday he would not end the war unless the Iranian regime relinquished power, adding that he wanted to “Make Iran Great Again”.
Trump said America would work with its allies to select an “acceptable” leader once the conflict was over, after the US killed Ali Khamenei, the late supreme leader, in an air strike on Saturday.
On his Truth Social platform, he said: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
“After that – and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE leader(s) – we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better and stronger than ever before.”
It is not clear what the President meant by including “(s)” in his post.
Hours earlier, Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian President, said some countries had begun mediation efforts to end the war, adding that Tehran was “committed to lasting peace”.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Friday reiterated his push for a “negotiated settlement”. On Wednesday it was revealed the Iranian spy chief contacted his counterpart at the CIA to talk about a ceasefire on the opening day of the conflict. However, the talks collapsed.
The US and Israel continued their attacks on Iran for the seventh consecutive day on Friday. Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, warned the number of strikes on Tehran would increase “dramatically” as Israel and Washington moved into “the next phase” of their military campaign.
The strikes on Friday included about 50 Israeli fighter jets destroying an underground bunker intended to be used as Khamenei’s command hub.
“Khamenei was eliminated before he could use the bunker during operation ‘Roaring Lion’ but the compound continued to be used by senior Iranian regime officials,” the Israeli Defence Forces said.
Hegseth later said the US would use British bases to increase the number of strikes on Iran “dramatically”.
He said it was “unfortunate” Britain had not initially approved the use of its bases – including Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands – “but we got there”.
“The amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically,” Hegseth said.
“When we say more to come, it’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities and it’s more bomber pulses more frequently.”
Washington deployed more warplanes to the region after gaining greater access to foreign countries’ bases and a warning by Trump that “the big one is coming soon”.
Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, Israel’s military chief, said: “We have additional surprises ahead which I do not intend to disclose.”
Israel launched 26 waves of strikes on Beirut on Friday as it stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group, along with a “broad-scale” wave of attacks on infrastructure targets in Tehran.
Residents in the Iranian capital said it was the worst night of bombing in the past week.
Saudi Arabia said it destroyed three drones east of Riyadh on Friday as Iran continued its retaliatory attacks across the Gulf. Several blasts were heard over Tel Aviv on Friday morning after the military said it had detected new missiles launched from Iran.
Starmer granted the US permission to use British bases for limited defensive purposes after Iran began firing indiscriminately at allies across the Middle East, and the Prime Minister was accused of not doing enough to support the region.
On Thursday, Trump refused to deny reports that he had described Starmer as a “loser” and repeated that he was “no Winston Churchill”.
The dispute had caused Trump to withdraw his support for Britain’s Chagos Islands deal, in which Britain will relinquish ownership of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, but lease back its Diego Garcia military base.
Diego Garcia is 3900km from Iran’s southern coast. That puts it out of range of Iranian ballistic missiles, but within operational range of US B-2 bombers.
Permission to use the base will help the US direct long-range stealth bombers such as the B-2 Spirit and B-1 Lancer against Iran without the need for mid-air refuelling, increasing its ability to launch direct strikes on key targets, including hardened bunkers.
The base has a deep-water port and advanced intelligence facilities.
On Friday, the US said it had sunk 30 Iranian naval ships and struck nearly 200 targets inside Iran, including deeply buried ballistic missile launchers.
The US Central Command said its forces were “not holding back on a mission to sink the entire Iranian navy”, having hit an Iranian drone carrier at sea.
However, US military investigators believe American forces were probably responsible for an airstrike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children, according to US military investigators.
The bombing of Shajare Tayyebe girls’ school in Minab, next door to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base, is believed to have killed 165 people.
Officials told Reuters the conclusion was tentative and that new evidence might emerge to absolve the US.
In an interview with American news website Axios on Thursday, Trump said he should be the one to choose Iran’s next leader. He ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei’s son and likely successor, calling him a “lightweight”.
The US President insisted he would not send US troops into Iran but said he was “all for” supporting a Kurdish invasion of western Iran to topple Tehran’s remaining leadership.
Trump said he wanted the country’s leadership structure removed and that “we want to go in and clean out everything” quickly.
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