Washington DC: The signs are not good. The US-Iran war won’t end in a hurry.
Shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian lectured international mediators to focus on “those who started the fire by underestimating the Iranian people”, Donald Trump asserted that the United States will accept nothing short of “unconditional surrender.”
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
He repeated his call for a new Iranian leadership and promised to help rebuild the country once it complies.
“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,” the US President wrote.
“IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!),” Trump added.
His comments come a day after he demanded that he be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader.
US and Israel carried out joint strikes on Tehran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and many of the country’s senior leadership.
Iran is currently being run by an Interim Leadership Council while the Assembly of Experts — the 88-member clerical body tasked with selecting a supreme leader — is under immense pressure to appoint a successor.
President Pezeshkian earlier in the day acknowledged that multiple countries had begun mediation efforts but left none in doubt that Tehran won’t be the subject of those efforts.
