Power change in Iran to be best thing that could happen: Trump
President Donald Trump has said that a change in power in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen” as the US administration weighs whether to take military action against Tehran. Trump made the comments shortly after visiting with troops in Ft Bragg, North Carolina, and after he confirmed earlier in the day that he’s deploying a second aircraft carrier group to the Mideast for potential military action against Iran.
“It seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters when asked about pressing for the ouster of the Islamic clerical rule in Iran. “For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking.” Trump said earlier that the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the US has built up in the region.
The planned deployment comes just days after Trump suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was at hand. Those negotiations didn’t materialise, as one of Tehran’s top security officials visited Oman and Qatar this week and exchanged messages with US intermediaries. “In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump told reporters about the second carrier. He added, “It’ll be leaving very soon.”
Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Middle East still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranians are beginning to hold 40-day mourning ceremonies for the thousands killed in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month, adding to the internal pressure faced by the sanctions-battered Islamic Republic.
The Ford, whose new deployment was first reported by The New York Times, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for over two weeks. US forces already have shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
It is a quick turnaround for the Ford, which Trump sent from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean last October as the administration built up a huge military presence in the lead-up to the surprise raid last month that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It also appears to be at odds with the Trump administration’s national security and defence strategies, which put an emphasis on the Western Hemisphere over other parts of the world.
In response to questions about the movement of the Ford, US Southern Command said US forces in Latin America will continue to “counter illicit activities and malign actors in the Western Hemisphere”. “While force posture evolves, our operational capability does not,” Col. Emanuel Ortiz, spokesperson for Southern Command, said in a statement. US “forces remain fully ready to project power, defend themselves, and protect US interests in the region.” President Donald Trump gives remarks to the troops in Fort Bragg, N.C.
