Trump says map of Iran will 'probably not' look the same after war
Why It Matters
The war in Iran widened again on Thursday as Israeli evacuation orders sent residents scrambling in Beirut, European governments rushed additional military assets into the Middle East, and global markets braced for further instability. A week into the U.S.–Israeli bombing campaign, the war is spilling rapidly across borders, reshaping regional politics and alarming world leaders. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to work to evacuate citizens in the region.
U.S. officials have said the goal of the operations against Iran has been to diminish the country's nuclear program and Navy, not regime change. When asked by reporters about who he would like to see rule Iran on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said, "Most of the people we had in mind are dead."
However, Trump said he plans to play a direct role in choosing Iran’s next leader following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to an interview with Axios.
What To Know
Reporters peppered the president with dozens of questions about various aspects of the war, which has lasted for one week and included two major joint U.S.-Israel strikes. The initial strike on February 28 killed Khamenei, and both the U.S. and Israel claimed that the strikes killed dozens of top commanders and officials, effectively throwing any chain of succession into chaos.
When asked if he believes the map of Iran will "look the same after all this is done," Trump said initially, "I can't tell you," but quickly added, "Probably not."
Already, Iran is feeling the strain of its leadership crisis, especially after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized to neighboring countries for retaliatory strikes carried out against them over the past week.
Some parliament members severely criticized Pezeshkian for his apology, with one member calling the message "weak, unprofessional, and publicly unacceptable," while another slammed his fellow members for a "diversionary and toxic debate” over succession, writing on X that "the stench of the power struggle in wartime is nauseating."
What Happens After the Iran War Ends?
The question of "the day after" the conflict ends has remained - at best - vague, especially when Trump said he's not thinking about what comes next and has insisted that everyone should "forget about next."
"Forget about next," he replied to a question. "They are decimated for a 10-year period before they could build it back."
Former MI-6 chief John Sawyer earlier this week told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he believes the conflict - which he deemed an "unnecessary war" - could lead to Iran fragmenting similarly to the fallout in Syria after Bashar al-Assad's ousting and, more famously, Afghanistan.
"I think just as dangerous is the possibility that the regime might corrode or collapse and lose control of parts of the country, and then you could have a situation like the one we faced in Syria for the last year or so, where the country fragments into several different parts and local administrations crop up often on an ethnic basis," Sawyer said.
"If the country dissolves into component parts... It'll be basically a failed state, an ungoverned state, and we've known from the last sort of 40 years what happens in failed states: It becomes a center for terrorism, for smuggling, for gun running, for drugs, for criminality of all sorts, and it does pose a threat to other countries," he continued.
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"I think it's in America's interest, and it's certainly in the interest of Europe, that this deeply unpleasant regime in Tehran nonetheless be replaced by a regime which still has authority over the country, that you can hold it to account," he added.
One of the concerns that has arisen is whether Trump will arm and back the Kurds in Iran to help topple the remnants of the regime, but Trump told reporters on Saturday that he has ruled out any Kurdish involvement, saying: "I don't want the Kurds going in. I don't want to see the Kurds get hurt, get killed. We had a good relationship, then willing to go in, but we really, I've told them, I don't want them to go in," adding that the conflict is "complicated enough" without their involvement.
