Donald Trump said a full-scale invasion of Iran would be ‘a waste of time’ on Thursday and called for the country to get a new leader who would ‘clean out everything.’
Trump spoke to NBC News as the Islamic Republic sought a new supreme leader after the death of Ayatollah Khamenei and their foreign minister said a ground invasion would be a ‘disaster’ for the US.
‘We want to go in and clean out everything. We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period,’ Trump told NBC.
‘We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job,’ he said, though he did not offer any names.
According to Al Jazeera, Iran’s interim council has discussed the gathering of the Assembly of Experts, which is tasked with selecting the new supreme leader.
Trump said somewhat sarcastically that ‘at some point they’ll be calling me to ask who I’d like’ to replace Khamenei.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the deceased Ayatollah, has emerged as the favorite to succeed his father, though Israel has pledged to kill him, too.
Trump also responded to a warning from Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that Iran was prepared for the US to launch ground attacks.
‘We are waiting for them because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them,’ Araghchi said.
Donald Trump would prefer Iran get a new leader who would ‘clean out everything’ in the country, while also calling a full-scale invasion ‘a waste of time’
Shop owners clean up the rubble caused by missile explosion in the vicinity of a building in Shahid Borujerdi residential complex in south east Tehran which was heavily struck and destroyed by Israel and the US
Trump dismissed it, saying: ‘It’s a waste of time. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose.’
He called Araghchi’s statement a ‘wasted comment’ and said that the US attacks on Iran are going to increase in the coming days.
Earlier Thursday, Trump warned the regime’s besieged military force to surrender or face ‘guaranteed death’ as the US ramps up attacks on Tehran.
Iran unleashed its ‘most intense barrage’ yet on Thursday night with a series of bombardments on Israel and US allies in the Gulf as it threatened to drag even more countries into the conflict.
The Islamic Republic had vowed the US would ‘bitterly regret’ torpedoing one of its warships as it sent hundreds of drones and missiles at its Arab neighbors.
Smoke was seen billowing in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh and above the world-famous Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi – where six people were injured.
But Iran’s threats were met with fury from Trump, who urged the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to lay down their arms or face the same fate as Khamenei.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the favourite to become Iran’s new Supreme Leader but Trump said it would be ‘unlikely’ he comes to power
Trump also responded to an interview Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (pictured) gave to NBC earlier Thursday that they ‘are waiting’ for the US to launch ground attacks
‘I’m once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police to lay down their arms,’ Trump said from the White House.
‘Now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country.
‘You’re gonna have a chance after all these years to take back your country. Accept immunity, we’ll give you immunity.
‘You’ll be perfectly safe with total immunity or you’ll face absolutely guaranteed death, and I don’t want to see that.’
Trump also claimed Iran has reached out to ‘make a deal’ to end the US military operation.
He said: ‘They’re calling, they’re saying, “How do we make a deal?”
‘I said, “You’re being a little bit late,” and we want to fight now more than they do.’
He also claimed the Iranian navy ‘is gone’ and the US wiped out ’24 ships in three days’, adding: ‘They have no air force, they have no air defense.
‘The United States military, together with the wonderful Israeli partners, continues to totally demolish the enemy, far ahead of schedule and at levels that people have never seen before.’
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference at CENTCOM headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa regarding the strikes on Iran
Smoke rises over buildings following explosions in the central region of Tehran on Friday morning
Trump’s comments came as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed it was ‘moving to the next phase of the operation’ against Iran, insisting it will ‘further dismantle the regime and its military capabilities’.
IDF Chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir said Israel and the US had been ‘strategically isolating’ Iran and bringing it to a point of weakness ‘unlike any it has known’.
He said Israel has pounded Iran ‘without pause’ and the ‘operation is proceeding at the pace we planned it to advance at’.
Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth hit out at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the US to launch attacks from British bases from day one.
‘The amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically,’ he warned.
Hegseth said it was ‘unfortunate’ access wasn’t granted ‘from day one’.
He added: ‘But we got there. We got there, and that’s now part of the way that we’re operationalizing bomber runs… It’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities, and it’s more bomber pulses more frequently.’
Hegseth also said Trump would be ‘having a heck of a say in who runs Iran given the ongoing operation’.
People and rescue forces work following a reported strike on a school in Minab, Iran
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, launched missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran
Trump has said he would personally select a new leader and Khamenei’s son Mojtaba was ‘unlikely’.
Mojtaba, 56, Ali Khamenei’s second oldest son, has strong links to the IRGC, and was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts ‘under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards’, according to Iranian opposition outlet Iran International.
Mojtaba is not a high-ranking cleric, has never held office and does not have an official role in the regime.
But he served in the Iranian armed forces during the Iran-Iraq war and is believed to wield considerable influence behind the scenes. He has been touted as a possible successor to his father for years.
However, he was not included in a list of three senior clerics Ali Khamenei reportedly identified last year.
Iran continued to bombard Saudi Arabia with missiles on Thursday.
Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing across the capital Riyadh after a barrage of cruise missiles thumped into the city on the sixth day of the conflict.
And following a mass drone attack on the United Arab Emirates, smoke could be seen rising from the world-famous Yas Marina, home to Abu Dhabi’s F1 grand prix circuit and hugely popular with tourists.
A number of alerts rang out across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, warning residents and visitors to stay safe after the UAE confirmed it was struck with a ballistic missile and six out of a barrage of 131 suicide drones.
Six people were injured in Abu Dhabi as a result of falling debris when drones were intercepted by air defense systems.
Iran continued to bombard Saudi Arabia with missiles on Thursday. Pictured: Smoke rises above the city, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Smoke rises from an Israeli strike in Beirut on Tuesday
Explosions were also heard in Qatar and Kuwait while an Iranian missile struck Bahrain’s largest petroleum refinery, capable of producing 267,000 barrels of oil per day, sending a huge fireball into the sky.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan became the latest country dragged into the escalating conflict as Iranian-made drones struck the country near the border with Iran and injured four civilians.
One hit the terminal building of an airport in Nakhchivan, sparking a fire, and the other came down beside a nearby school.
Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of ‘terrorism’ and threatened retaliation as he demanded an apology and explanation.
However, Tehran denied the allegation and blamed Israel, Azerbaijan’s ally, of trying to stage a provocation.
The Iranians claimed a US oil tanker was on fire after being hit in the Strait of Hormuz, though images of the unconfirmed attack are yet to emerge.
Iranian military is targeting American sites and energy infrastructure in the region in retaliation for the US-Israeli air offensive which killed its Supreme Leader and several senior officials.
The American embassy in Riyadh issued a security threat after Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said three Iranian cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed outside nearby Al-Kharj.
But Iran denied attacking the US embassy in Saudi Arabia after it was struck with drones on Tuesday night.
‘We confirmed that Iran has no role in the attack on the US embassy in Riyadh,’ Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Alireza Enayati said.
Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Thursday.
It also continued to trade blows with Hezbollah, targeting the Iranian-backed terror group’s stronghold of Dahieh in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Israeli military also said it launched a ‘large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure’ in Iran’s capital, without elaborating.
The Israeli Air Force said it has dropped more than 5,000 munitions on Iran since the conflict started on Saturday. Pictures coming out of Tehran show the destruction levelled on the country with extensive damage to key buildings in the capital and the sports stadium severely damaged.
In one of the few clerical statements so far from Iran, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli used state television to call for ‘the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood’.
The latest exchanges came after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship, the Iris Dena, off the coast of Sri Lanka on Tuesday night, killing at least 87 Iranian sailors with a further 70 missing and presumed drowned.
Hegseth said the ship had been hit by a torpedo and had died a ‘quiet death’. It is the first time a US submarine has sunk an enemy warship by torpedo since the Second World War.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi decried it as ‘an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores’, and warned the US would ‘bitterly regret’ it.
