United States President, Donald Trump, has said Washington is not currently considering deploying ground troops to Iran, describing such a move as unnecessary at this stage of the conflict.
Speaking during a telephone interview with NBC News on Thursday, Trump dismissed comments by Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, who had warned that any US or Israeli ground invasion would result in severe consequences for the invading forces.
According to Trump, discussing the possibility of sending American troops into Iran now would be “a waste of time,” insisting that Iran’s military capabilities had already been severely weakened.
“It’s a waste of time. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose,” he said, adding that Araghchi’s remarks were unnecessary and unproductive.
Trump also suggested that he would prefer a swift restructuring of Iran’s leadership rather than allowing the current system to rebuild over a long period.
“We want to go in and clean out everything quickly. We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period,” he stated, noting that he already had potential candidates in mind for a new leadership but declined to mention any names.
Earlier, Trump indicated that he would likely play a role in determining Iran’s future leadership following the reported death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who was said to have been killed during joint US-Israeli strikes at the beginning of the conflict last Saturday.
Meanwhile, heavy strikes were reported in Tehran on Friday after Israel announced it had begun targeting key “regime infrastructure” in what it described as a new phase of the war being waged alongside the United States against Iran.
The escalation marks a significant development in the ongoing conflict, with military operations intensifying across strategic locations within Iran.
