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Iran is forming a temporary leadership council after the assassination of supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei by the US and Israel.
Iranian politician Ali Larijani said the interim council will hold authority until a new leader is elected.
Larijani, a former member of the Revolutionary Guards, previously served as the speaker of the Iranian parliament and was the nation’s chief nuclear negotiator.
He is said to have a “reputation for pragmatism,” including with regards to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Back in February, he told a television interview that he believed the nuclear issue was “resolvable.”
“If the Americans’ concern is that Iran should not move toward acquiring a nuclear weapon, that can be addressed.”
In an eight-minute address to the nation on Saturday morning, President Trump said the Iranian regime must be held accountable for its historical attacks on the US and its allies, and for its refusal to abandon its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.
He said the US will now destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, its navy and its “terrorist proxies” in the region.
He also called on the Iranian people to “take over your government” once the military operation is finished.
In a phone interview with Axios on Saturday, President Trump said he was offering the Iranians several “off ramps” from the military operation.
“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear program].’”
“In any case, it will take them several years to recover from this attack,” Trump added.
The comments suggest President Trump is still open to a diplomatic solution.
As Axios notes, “A short operation followed by new ultimatums would be a dramatically different outcome than the regime change thatsome U.S. and Israeli officials have described as the goal.”
A senior US official has said the joint US-Israeli operational plan targets a heavy five-day bombing campaign. The President told Axios the schedule could change in response to events on the ground, including the fate of senior Iranian officials.
Trump said the two main reasons for the attacks were the failure of recent negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, led on the American side by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Iran’s history of funding terrorism and proxy wars for the last five decades.
“The Iranians got close and then pulled back—close and then pulled back. I understood from that that they don’t really want a deal,” Trump said, claiming the regime had rebuilt some of its nuclear facilities that were destroyed last June during Operation Midnight Hammer.
Trump said Midnight Hammer allowed the current operation to take place, and that Iran might already have had a nuclear weapon if those strikes had not been launched.
