President Donald Trump has said it would be a “waste of time” to consider deploying United States ground troops to Iran at this stage, dismissing warnings from Iran’s foreign minister that such an invasion would lead to disaster for any invading force.
According to a report by NBC News, Trump made the remarks during a telephone interview on Thursday, responding to comments by Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who had earlier said Iran was prepared for a possible US or Israeli ground invasion.
“It’s a waste of time. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose,” Trump said, adding that Araghchi’s statement that Iran was ready for an invasion was a “wasted comment.”
The US president also suggested he would like to see Iran’s leadership structure removed, stating that “we want to go in and clean out everything” swiftly.
“We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period,” he said, adding that he had ideas about who could lead Iran next but declined to mention any names.
Trump had earlier stated that he would “have to be involved” in the appointment of Iran’s next leader after US-Israeli strikes reportedly killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, at the start of the conflict last Saturday.
Meanwhile, heavy strikes were reported in Tehran on Friday after Israel announced it was targeting what it described as “regime infrastructure” in what it called a “new phase” of the war launched with the United States against Iran.