WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that regime change in Iran is “the best thing that could happen” — as he continued to threaten US military strikes if Tehran doesn’t make a nuclear deal.
Trump said he wanted Iran to agree to the complete abandonment of its enrichment program, which Tehran has refused to do, insisting its radioactive research is for electricity and not atomic bombs.
Asked if he wanted the overthrow of Iran’s theocratic government, the president responded: “Well, it seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.”
“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking,” Trump told reporters following a visit to Fort Bragg, NC.
“And in the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk. Legs blown off, arms blown off, faces blown off — this has been going on for a long time,” he added, referring to Iran’s aid to anti-US insurgents during the Iraq War.
“So let’s see what happens. In the meantime … tremendous power has arrived and additional power — as you know, another carrier is going out.”
Trump did not specify how regime change would happen — after he egged on protesters last month before they were violently crushed by government forces.
The president has pointedly refused to answer press questions about whether he would attempt to assassinate the highest-level Iranian officials.
He also has dismissed exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi as a viable contender to lead the country and suggested Iranians themselves would have to sort out a new government.
Trump last month ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a supporting strike group into the Arabian Sea — setting the stage for possible strikes — and has informed the crew of a second aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, to prepare to deploy.
The US negotiating team — led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — met Feb. 6 with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who said the indirect talks focused solely on the country’s nuclear program, which was bombed last June by Israel and the US.
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Washington also is interested in agreements to respect human rights and to stop arming proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen, though Tehran has so far refused to be drawn on those issues.
Trump said Thursday that Iran faced a “traumatic” reckoning if it wouldn’t make a deal — after he met Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss war plans.
Netanyahu reportedly urged Trump to target Iran’s longer-range ballistic missiles in the event of an American attack — after pleading for a delay last month over concerns about his nation’s preparedness.
US partners in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have urged Trump not to try to take out Iran’s leadership for fear of region-destabilizing effects.
Trump’s endorsement of regime change comes in spite of the fact that he spent much of his political career bashing presidents from both major parties for toppling dictators in other Mideast countries, such as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
During his first presidential run in 2016, Trump declared: “The war in Iraq started the whole destabilization of the Middle East. It started ISIS. It started Libya. It started Syria. That was one of the worst decisions ever made by any government at any time.”
But the president wrote on social media Jan. 2 that the US was “locked and loaded and ready to go” if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” which it reportedly then did on a historic scale, with various estimates putting the death toll well into the thousands.
Trump called on protesters to “TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” on Jan. 13 and said “HELP IS ON ITS WAY” — before backing away from an immediate strike, citing Iran’s decision to postpone executions of hundreds of demonstrators.
