U.S. President Donald Trump, regarding Iran's next leadership, said, "Everyone who seems to want to be a leader ultimately meets death."
On the 4th (local time), President Trump made the remarks at a roundtable at the White House on energy issues.
Earlier, after Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, died on the 28th, the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks, reports said that discussions were underway in Iran about his successor.
It is interpreted as President Trump warning the next leader that this person could also become a target of a "decapitation operation."
Regarding the "Epic Fury" operation, a military attack on Iran that entered its fifth day, President Trump said, "We are doing very well and will continue to do well," adding, "When someone asked what score out of 10 I would give, I said about 15."
He said, "For 47 years they (Iran) have been killing people around the world, and we have strong support," stressing, "If we had not acted first, they would have attacked Israel, and they would have attacked us as well."
He also argued that if he had not scrapped in 2018, during his first term, the "Iran nuclear deal" (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA) that the United States signed with Iran in 2015 during former President Barack Obama's tenure, Iran would have possessed nuclear weapons.
He further referred to the surprise strike on Iranian nuclear facilities carried out on his orders in June last year, claiming, "If we had not attacked, they would have had nuclear weapons."
Meanwhile, President Trump said, "Bad things happen when crazy people have nuclear weapons." This is a remark that could also apply to North Korea, which President Trump has often referred to as a nuclear-armed state.