US President Donald Trump says regime change in Iran is “the best thing that could happen”, signifying one of his clearest endorsements for replacing the clerical establishment.
“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives,” he said on Friday.
Trump declined to specify who he wants to lead Iran, but noted “there are people” who could take over. Iran’s clerical ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not yet responded to Trump’s latest remarks.
Meanwhile, the US sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to add pressure on Iran to secure a nuclear deal.
The USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest warship and the newest US aircraft carrier, is set to relocate “very soon” from the Caribbean to the Middle East, Trump said.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump shared an aerial photograph of the carrier, which appears in transit on its way to join a second US vessel – the USS Abraham Lincoln – already stationed in the Middle East.
The Pentagon sent the aircraft carrier in January after the US threatened to strike Iran to stop a government crackdown on mass protests in which thousands of people were killed.
The wave of demonstrations marked some of the most dramatic upheavals in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which installed the clerical system led by a Supreme Leader.
While Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no nuclear agreement can be reached, he insisted after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday at the White House that talks with Tehran would continue.
Speaking at Fort Bragg on Friday evening, Trump said Iran should “give us a deal that they should have given us the first time” when asked what the Middle East country should do to avoid an attack.
The US has pushed for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment, while Netanyahu’s government has insisted Tehran should cut its ballistic missiles programme and support for proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran has so far suggested it is ready to limit its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, but the country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned it would “not yield to their excessive demands”.
Trump withdrew the US from an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran in his first term in office and reinstated sanctions that have severely strained its economy.
The administration restarted talks last year to reach a new deal before the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
