President Donald Trump said he believes regime change in Iran could be “the best thing that could happen,” while declining to specify who should lead the country, as the exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged the US to take action against the regime, which he describes as “on the brink of collapse.”
Asked whether he wanted regime change in Iran, President Trump said it “seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” adding that while he would not name a successor, “there are people.” Speaking after a military event at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, President Trump criticized decades of Iranian leadership, saying the conflict had cost lives.
“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking,” he said. “In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk. Legs blown off, arms blown off, faces blown off. We’ve been going on for a long time.”
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Pahlavi called on the United States to take action against the Iranian regime, which he said was on the “brink of collapse.” Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, he said, “It’s a matter of time. We are hoping that this attack will expedite the process, and the people can finally be back in the streets and take it all the way to the ultimate regime’s downfall.”
Pahlavi, who is based in the United States and has lived outside Iran since before his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, urged Iranians at home and abroad to continue demonstrations. He called on supporters to chant slogans from their homes and rooftops at 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday to coincide with protests in Germany and elsewhere.
“It is time to end the Islamic Republic. This is the demand echoing from the bloodshed of my compatriots, who are not asking us to fix the regime but to help them bury it,” he said.
Pahlavi appealed directly to Trump at the conference. “To President Trump … The Iranian people heard you say help is on the way, and they have faith in you. Help them,” he told reporters.
President Trump also said the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest and newest US warship, would relocate “very soon” from the Caribbean to the Middle East. He shared an aerial image of the carrier on his Truth Social platform, appearing to show it in transit to join the USS Abraham Lincoln, already stationed in the region.
Meanwhile, Axios reports that talks between Iran and the United States are scheduled to resume on Tuesday in Geneva and will include US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US negotiator Jared Kushner. The Iranian delegation is expected to be led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, with Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, as mediator.