"There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" Trump posted to Truth Social.
"After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before," he wrote.
Those remarks come a day after the president demanded that he be involved in choosing Iran's next leader, after the U.S. and Israel killed the country's top official, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of the country's senior leadership.
The war has engulfed regional neighbors in the fighting, disrupted the global economy, killed scores of people and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers.
Trump's demands come as Iran's 88-member Assembly of Experts is voting on the next supreme leader, who holds ultimate authority in the country over its political and military decisions, foreign policy and control of information in the country.
Trump told Axios he wants a leader "who will bring harmony and peace."
Iran's secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, has projected defiance in statements and said Sunday that Iran had prepared itself for a long war.
The New York Times, however, reported that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence had reached out indirectly to the CIA in the early days of the war to discuss terms for ending the conflict, although U.S. officials were reportedly skeptical.
Trump has not ruled out sending U.S. ground troops into Iran, something that could be necessary to secure a complete surrender by Iran.
Demanding Iran's complete surrender raises the question of what role America's military would play in determining what a surrender looks like or which satisfies the president.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment