US President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a change in leadership in Iran, after his country joined Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Trump posted on social media to ask \u201cwhy wouldn\u2019t there be a Regime change?\u201d<\/p>\n
His remarks came after other top US officials stressed that toppling Iran\u2019s leaders was not the aim of Saturday\u2019s military action, during which US bombers targeted three sites in an effort to curtail Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n
Trump has previously criticised US involvement in overseas conflicts, including in Iraq, where the US and its allies toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003.<\/p>\n
In Sunday\u2019s post, Trump wrote: \u201cIt\u2019s not politically correct to use the term, \u2018Regime Change,\u2019 but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn\u2019t there be a Regime change???\u201d<\/p>\n
It appeared to put him at odds with his top allies. Over the weekend, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the \u201cmission was not and has not been about regime change\u201d \u2013 a message that was echoed by Vice-President JD Vance.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s post caused a flurry of speculation, but one of his former officials questioned how seriously it should be taken.<\/p>\n
Elliott Abrams, who was the American envoy to Iran during Trump\u2019s first presidency, told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme there had been a lot of \u201cmisdirection\u201d following the comments, and that Trump might just be \u201ckidding around\u201d.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s strikes on three separate sites in Iran by the US came after a week of hostilities between Israel and Iran, triggered by an effort by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin to wipe out Iran\u2019s nuclear research programme.<\/p>\n
Both Netanyahu and Trump voiced fears that Tehran was nearing a capacity at which it could build a nuclear weapon. Iran has repeatedly denied planning to do so.<\/p>\n
Trump says the strikes \u2013 which used high-tech American \u201cbunker-buster\u201d bombs to attack underground infrastructure \u2013 caused \u201cmonumental damage\u201d. However, the scale of the destruction is not yet clear.<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s nuclear watchdog has called for a ceasefire in order to allow an inspection.<\/p>\n
Iran responded furiously, vowing what it calls \u201ceverlasting consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Monday morning, the Israeli military said missiles had been launched from Iran towards Israel. It also said it had attacked six airports in Iran.<\/p>\n
There are 40,000 US soldiers on bases and warships in the Middle East who are now on high alert as officials brace for retaliation from Iran. The US Department of State has also issued a global warning, advising US citizens worldwide to exercise increased caution.<\/p>\n
Iranian state TV has reported that the country\u2019s parliament has also approved a measure to close Strait of Hormuz \u2013 a narrow route that is critical for trade.<\/p>\n
Such a move could have major ramifications for global trade, since almost a quarter of the world\u2019s oil and gas passing through it. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China to prevent Iran from making a closure.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s foreign minister has travelled to Moscow to meet Russia\u2019s President Putin to talk about their \u201ccommon challenges and threats\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a change in leadership in Iran, after his country joined Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities. On Sunday, Trump posted on social media to ask \u201cwhy wouldn\u2019t there be a Regime change?\u201d His remarks came after other top US officials stressed that toppling Iran\u2019s leaders was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}