Roving Periscope: Trump to ‘select’ new Iran leader; offers ‘immunity’ or ‘death’ to IRGC
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Amid the escalating war in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump has urged Iran’s all-powerful Islamic Republic Guards Corps (IRGC) to surrender and get immunity, while asserting that he must be “personally involved” in picking Tehran’s next leader, the media reported on Friday.
His remarks suggested a direct role for Washington in shaping Iran’s leadership transition, even as senior US officials denied that the military campaign targeted a change of government in Tehran, the reports claimed.
Meanwhile, Israel and Iran continued to airstrike each other with missiles and drones as Tehran also showered pro-US Arab and other countries around to spread the grim conflict on the seventh day that has left several areas across the region devastated and claimed lives of over 1,500 people, besides leaving thousands wounded.
In an interview with Axios, Trump said that he would not accept Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s next leader.
“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy (Rodriguez) in Venezuela,” the US President was quoted as saying.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
After Israel’s threat that it would also kill the Ayatollah’s son as a successor, Iran has not yet announced who will take over the country’s leadership. Trump’s remarks came as Tehran continued internal consultations over the appointment of a successor, in which Mojtaba is said to be a frontrunner.
Mojtaba Khamenei
Reports from Iran suggested that Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, survived the US and Israeli airstrikes that killed his father, some other family members, and key officials.
The cleric is regarded as one of the most influential figures within Iran’s religious establishment and has close ties with the IRGC. Although he has never held public office, he is widely viewed as a potential successor to his father.
Venezuela
Trump compared the situation in Iran with developments in Venezuela, saying he had influenced leadership arrangements there as well.
Referring to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, he said his role in Iran’s leadership transition would be similar to what he described as his involvement in Venezuela.
Trump said the US ‘benefited’ from the change in Venezuela, stating that oil supplies resumed after American forces captured the then Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and expatriated him to the US to face court cases.
‘No regime change’
Trump’s remarks suggested a direct role for Washington in shaping Iran’s leadership transition, even as senior US officials claimed that the military campaign was not aimed at regime change.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation has been focused on weakening Iran’s missile capability, nuclear weapons programme, and naval capacity, all ‘threatening’ the US’s security, rather than altering the country’s leadership.
Earlier, when asked at the White House about possible successors to Khamenei, he said, “Most of the people we had in mind are dead.”
IRGC
Meanwhile, Trump also asked Iran’s (IRGC) to surrender in exchange for “full immunity,” or face “guaranteed death,” as the conflict intensifies.
“I’m once again calling on all members of the IRGC, the military, and the police to lay down their arms. They’re only going to be killed. Now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country,” Trump said in an event for the Major League Soccer Champions in the White House.
He called on the IRGC members to be on the “right side of history” and be “perfectly safe with total immunity.”
The US President also urged the Iranian diplomats around the world to request asylum and to help the US in shaping a “new and better Iran with great potential and a better future.”
“The US will ensure whoever leads the country next will not threaten America, or anybody else,” Trump said.
On the seventh day of the escalating war, which has engulfed a dozen countries in and around the Middle East, Israel carried out heavy air strikes on Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon and started a “broad-scale” wave of attacks against infrastructure in Tehran, while Iran said it targeted the heart of Tel Aviv with missiles.
Explosions and flashes lit up the night sky over Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military said it carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight in the southern suburbs, saying targets included Iran-backed Hezbollah militia command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Iran’s IRGC said Kheibar missiles were fired toward Tel Aviv on Friday as part of the 21st wave of its “Operation True Promise 4.” The wave began with a combined missile and drone operation targeting sites in the heart of Tel Aviv.
Overnight, Iranian drones attacked the U.S. Al Udied airbase in Qatar, the biggest US base in the West Asia, Qatari officials said. There were no reported casualties.
The IRGC said Iranian forces had targeted the Ramat David air base and a radar site in Israel, the Al-Adiri camp in Kuwait where U.S. forces are stationed, and a drone attack on a base hosting the US troops in Erbil, Iraq.
The seven-day war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean where a US submarine sank an Iranian naval ship near Sri Lanka this week.
“This was an ‘existential war’ for Iran, leaving us with no choice but to respond wherever American attacks originate from,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said at the Raisina Dialogues conference in New Delhi on Friday.
Hezbollah, in a message published in Hebrew on its Telegram channel early on Friday, warned Israelis to leave towns within 5 km (3 miles) of the border.
“Your military’s aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged,” Hezbollah said.
At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran since the fighting began a week ago, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The Lebanese health ministry reported 123 people have been killed and another 683 wounded in Israeli attacks this week. There have been no reported fatalities in Israel due to Hezbollah attacks.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan said four Iranian drones crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave. Iran, which has a significant Azeri minority, denied it targeted its neighbour.
Kurds
US President Donald Trump encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran as the West Asia conflict widened.
“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” he was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Two Iranian drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, security sources said.
Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the country.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the US was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, despite what Trump said about choosing the country’s next leader.
“There’s no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” he said.
Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. forces in the West Asia, said during a briefing that the U.S. had enough munitions to continue its bombardment indefinitely.
“Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation,” Hegseth said at Central Command headquarters in Florida. “Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad.”
The attack on Iran is a political gamble for the Republican president, with opinion polls showing little public support and Americans concerned about the rise in gasoline prices caused by disruption to energy supplies. Trump dismissed that concern.
Shares on Wall Street fell on Thursday, weighed by surging oil prices, as the economic impact of the campaign intensified, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas. Air transport still faces chaos and global logistics are increasingly snarled.
A slight pullback in oil prices on Friday offered some reprieve to battered global stocks, although share markets in Asia remained on track for their sharpest weekly drop in six years as the conflict in the West Asia showed few signs of easing.
