WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0on Tuesday said that \u201csomeone from within\u201d the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the\u00a0U.S.-Israel military campaign\u00a0is completed \u2014 but said \u201cmost of the people we had in mind are dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to\u00a0\u201ctake over your government\u201d\u00a0once the U.S.-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that\u00a0the war\u00a0presents an opportunity to end the\u00a0theocratic rule\u00a0that has been in place since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.<\/p>\n
Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli campaign that killed\u00a0Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei\u00a0and many other top officials.<\/p>\n
Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it\u2019s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the people we had in mind are dead,\u201d he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. \u201cNow we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we\u2019re not going to know anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said\u00a0Reza Pahlavi,\u00a0the exiled crown prince of Iran\u2019s last shah who is\u00a0trying to position himself\u00a0for a return should Iran\u2019s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,\u201d Trump said, adding that it may make sense for \u201csomebody that\u2019s there, that\u2019s currently popular, if there is such a person\u201d to emerge from the power vacuum.<\/p>\n
Trump’s comments came as he hosted German Chancellor\u00a0Friedrich Merz\u00a0for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump said he wanted to avoid a \u201cworst case\u201d scenario where \u201csomebody takes over who\u2019s as bad as the previous person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could happen. We don\u2019t want that to happen,\u201d Trump added. \u201cYou go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House has stepped up its push to counter\u00a0criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly\u00a0to launch a war of choice against Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians \u2014 talks the U.S. increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.<\/p>\n
After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.<\/p>\n
The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential \u201cObama-plus deal\u201d and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.<\/p>\n
Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and \u201cfight for every point that we can\u201d if that\u2019s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the U.S.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized Britain and Spain for their reluctance to aid the U.S.-Israeli\u00a0strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with,\u201d Trump fumed about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n
Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.<\/p>\n
Trump also said he was going to\u00a0“cut off all trade with Spain,\u201d\u00a0the day after Foreign Minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares said his country would not allow the U.S. to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain in any strikes not covered by the United Nations\u2019 charter.<\/p>\n
The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war \u2014 questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. had decided to strike because \u201cwe knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we knew that if we didn\u2019t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. \u201cWe were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIf anything, I might have forced Israel\u2019s hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio on Tuesday echoed Trump’s insistence that the decision to attack Iran was made independent of Israel.<\/p>\n
Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is \u201clooking forward to the day after\u201d the Iran war is over.<\/p>\n
He said Berlin wants to work with the U.S. on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,\u201d Merz said. \u201cAnd this is this is important not just for the Americans,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.<\/p>\n
The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the U.S. remains engaged in the strikes \u2014 yet argued it would be fleeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Fatima Hussein and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Jill Lawless in London contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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