Trump says he wants to participate in choosing the next Iranian leader

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he should participate in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader as the United States and Israel strike the country for a sixth day. Iran continued its retaliatory attacks on Israel, American bases, and countries in the region.

Read more: Who is Mojtaba Khamenei? One of the sons of Iran’s late supreme leader is a rising contender to replace him

Speaking to Axios, Trump ruled out the nomination of Mojtaba Khamenei, the most likely candidate to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first strikes of the war. Trump’s comments are likely to renew questions about whether the United States and Israel are seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic or merely change its policies.

Meanwhile, the war escalates every day, affecting 14 additional countries across the Middle East and beyond. Iran said the United States would “deeply regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of attacking it with drones, although Tehran denied this. A day earlier, the United States announced that it had sunk an Iranian frigate in the waters off Sri Lanka.

Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for all southern suburbs of Beirut as fighting escalated with Lebanese Hezbollah fighters allied with Iran. UN peacekeepers reported ground fighting in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces crossed the border.

Meanwhile, the United States and Israel have hit Iran with nationwide strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership, and nuclear program. Israeli and American leaders had indicated that overthrowing the government was a goal, but the exact goals and timelines changed repeatedly, and the conflict seemed increasingly endless.

Read more: Inside Iran’s succession process and who could be the country’s next supreme leader

Iran’s attacks targeted its Arab neighbors, disrupted oil supplies, and hindered global air travel. The war killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 100 in Lebanon, and about a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six American soldiers were killed.

Trump wants to participate in choosing Khamenei’s successor

Trump told Axios that “I must participate in the appointment” of Khamenei’s successor, and that the late leader’s 56-year-old son is “unacceptable to me” and “a lightweight.”

“We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said.

“I should participate in the appointment, as happened with Delsey in Venezuela,” Trump said, referring to the acting president of the South American country.

Delcy Rodriguez took office in January after Trump ordered a US military operation to arrest Nicolas Maduro and transport him to the United States to face federal drug conspiracy charges.

Iran remains defiant

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused the US Navy of committing “atrocities at sea” by sinking the Iranian frigate Iris Dina in the Indian Ocean earlier in the week, killing at least 87 people.

“Mark my words: The United States will deeply regret the precedent it has set,” he said on social media.

An Iranian cleric later called on state television for the shedding of Israeli blood and the blood of Trump.

Read more: Under the weight of air strikes, Iran launches a new wave of attacks against Israel and American bases

The statement by Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli represents a rare call for violence by the Ayatollah, one of the highest-ranking clerics in Shiite Islam. There are dozens in Iran.

The war continues to expand

Israel announced multiple rocket attacks and sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The Israeli army said it carried out a wave of strikes on Iranian ballistic missile launch sites.

Gulf states also reported coming under fire. In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said that a drone was shot down near Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts American forces, and its fragments fell on the ground. Six people were injured.

Qatar evacuated residents near the US Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and later reported a missile attack on the city. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan. Bahrain said an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery on Thursday, starting a fire that was extinguished. She added that the refinery is still operating, and there have been no reports of casualties. Earlier, the Bahraini Ministry of Defense said that its forces had intercepted 75 Iranian ballistic missiles and 124 drones since the beginning of the war.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of carrying out a “baseless terrorist and aggressive act” after a drone crashed on Thursday near Nakhchivan airport, a region bordering Iran and separated by Armenia from the rest of the country. Another drone fell near a school. The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said that four civilians, all airport employees, were injured.

Aliyev said the army had been instructed to “prepare and carry out retaliatory measures.”

The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces denied that it launched drones towards Azerbaijan. Iran has also repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets, even as its missiles and drones have struck such sites.

A tanker appeared to have been attacked off the coast of Kuwait early Thursday, expanding the area where commercial shipping was at risk, according to the UK’s Maritime Trade Operations Center run by the British military. She said that an explosion occurred, but did not give a reason.

Since the war began on Saturday, ships have been subjected to attacks in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes. This led to higher oil prices.

Israel issues a warning to evacuate the suburbs of Beirut

Israel issued an evacuation notice calling on all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to “save their lives and evacuate their homes immediately,” in an apparent reference to plans for heavy bombardment of the area.

Since renewed hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which struck Israel in the early days of the war, Israel has bombed sites on the outskirts of Beirut and issued a blanket warning to residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate.

Among the 80 targets in Lebanon that the Israeli military said it struck in the past 24 hours were “several command centers” used by Hezbollah in Beirut. It showed video footage of a building being bombed, without providing further details.

Peacekeepers saw and heard clashes, including ground fighting, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces moved across the border, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said on Thursday.

UNIFIL spokesman Tilak Pokharel said: “Ground fighting was observed west of Kafr Kila,” a village close to the border with Israel, during the night. Peacekeepers also saw “air attacks, flares, and heard explosions” in the town of Khiam, about five kilometers from the border.

An Iranian warship was bombed on its way home from a multinational exercise
The Iranian ship sunk by the US Navy was returning from an exercise hosted by the Indian Navy in which the US also joined.

Sri Lankan authorities said that 32 crew members were rescued, while the navy recovered at least 87 bodies. Araqchi said the ship was carrying a crew of “about 130.”

The Minister of Information and spokeswoman for the Sri Lankan government, Nalinda Jayatissa, told Parliament on Thursday that another Iranian ship had arrived in its territorial waters. Jayatissa did not provide further details about the ship.

He rose from Bangkok, Bekatoros from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sally Abouljoud in Beirut, Lebanon, Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok, Melanie Liedman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Giovanna dell’Orto in Miami contributed to this report.