US President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that the US-Iran war had achieved regime change in Iran, even as he assured that he would “make a deal” with the Iranians.
“I think we’ll make a deal with them, pretty sure… but we’ve had regime change,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, citing the number of Iranian leaders killed in the month-long war.
“We’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change,” Trump said.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike at the commencement of the war on February 28, was named the country’s third supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Since the conflict began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Tehran has effectively shut off the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20% of the world’s oil and gas pass.
The closure has sent global oil prices skyrocketing, but Trump promised relief in the form of Iranian concessions, beginning with the anticipated passage of several tankers through the crucial waterway.
“They gave us, I think, out of a sign of respect, 20 boats of oil, big, big boats of oil going through the Hormuz Strait,” Trump said.
He added that the deliveries will be “taking place starting tomorrow morning, over the next couple of days.”
