Donald Trump also said he is “far away” from making a decision on sending American troops to Iran, keeping secret his plans for dealing with the country’s new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei
US President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure with the election of Iran’s supreme leader, to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, killed at the start of the Israeli-American offensive against Iran.
Donald Trump also said he is “far away” from making a decision on the United States, keeping his plans for dealing with the country’s new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, secret.
“We have not made any decision on that. We are far from that,” Trump said of discussions regarding a possible deployment of US troops to the underground uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan.
Trump, who is in Miami (southeast) to attend a Republican conference, previously said that the joint offensive with Israel aimed to overthrow the regime in Iran and that he wanted to participate in choosing the new power in Tehran.
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, considered a hardliner in the regime, was seen as a new sign of defiance from the Iranian leadership, after more than a week of intense US and Israeli bombings.
The succession suggests that Tehran is not close to giving up what it considers to be a fight for the survival of Islamic theocracy, according to the North American news agency The Associated Press (AP).
The 56-year-old cleric, only the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic, proclaimed after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979, maintains close ties with the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The elite force, created on the sidelines of the regular army to protect the regime, has been attacking Israel and the Gulf Arab monarchies since Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the war on February 28.
Following the announcement of the election of the new supreme leader on Sunday, oil prices soared as Iran attacked regional energy infrastructure and the United States and Israel bombed targets across Iranian territory.
