UNITED States (U.S.) President, Donald Trump, thinks new Iranian Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran, is alive, but “damaged.”
Khamenei has not been seen by Iranians since his selection on Sunday, March 8, by a clerical assembly, and his first comments were read out by a television presenter on Thursday, March 12.
“I think he probably is (alive). I think he is damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form, you know,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News late on Thursday.
In Khamenei’s first comments, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighbouring countries to close US bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
The US and Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28, and Iran has responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf countries with US bases.
As the war approached the two-week mark, having killed thousands and shaken financial markets, the leaders of Iran, Israel and the US all voiced defiance and vowed to fight on.
Meanwhile, explosions were heard in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Friday, March 13, as Israel said it was launching another “wide-scale wave of strikes” against the country’s regime.
This came after the Israeli military said it detected fresh missiles being launched from Iran.
Twenty-eight drones entering Saudi Arabian airspace were destroyed, while authorities in Dubai said debris from an intercepted projectile hit a building in the centre of the city.
In a social media post, Trump said the US was “totally destroying” the Iranian regime, and to “watch what happens” in the war on Friday.
Elsewhere, a US refuelling plane has gone down over western Iraq, the US military said it was an “incident” involving two aircraft and “hostile fire or friendly fire” was not to blame.
The US also announced it was easing sanctions on Russian oil stranded at sea in an attempt to curb price rises and concerns about global supplies
“We are crushing Iranian regime, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The US has authorised countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum that is currently loaded on vessels at sea in an attempt to curb the economic impact of Iran conflict.
Almost two weeks into this war, Israel’s military again hit Iran overnight, targeting what it said was regime infrastructure.
At the same time, it is expanding its operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the Iranian-backed group continued to fire missiles and launch drones towards Israel injuring several people in the north of the country.
In his first news conference of the conflict, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated that one war aim was to create the conditions so the Iranian people could rise up and topple the government. There is no sign of that happening yet.
In a post on Telegram, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they have “just begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran,” followed by multiple explosions reported in and near the city.
It added that it was working to intercept a fresh batch of missiles launched from Iran towards Israel.
Trump said it was a “great honour” to be killing members of the Iranian regime, in a post on social media, adding: “We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise,” he wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning.
“Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth.
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time. Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
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