Trump says he wants to be involved in picking Iran’s next leader as war ripples across the region

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader as the U.S. and Israel hammered the country for a sixth day. Iran kept up retaliatory attacks on Israel, American bases and countries around the region.

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that American firepower over Tehran was “about to surge dramatically.” The Israeli military said strikes have already destroyed most of Iran’s air defences and missile launchers.

Trump ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, a front-runner to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes of the war. Trump’s comments to the American news website Axios were likely to renew questions about whether the U.S. and Israel seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic or just a change in its policies, as the conflict has appeared increasingly open-ended.

The war has escalated each day, affecting an additional 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of drone attacks, which Tehran denied. Iran said the U.S. would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka a day earlier.

Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for Beirut’s southern suburbs as the fighting escalated with Iran-allied Hezbollah militants. UN peacekeepers reported ground combat in southern Lebanon as more Israeli troops crossed the border.

All the while, the U.S. and Israel battered Iran with nationwide strikes, targeting their military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program.

Iran’s attacks have targeted their Arab neighbors, disrupted oil supplies and snarled global air travel. The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 120 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.

Trump’s decision to strike Iran won enough support from Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House on Thursday to defeat a resolution to halt the bombardment. The Senate voted down a similar measure a day earlier.

Trump again urges Iranians to “take back” their country

In brief remarks at the White House, Trump again urged the Iranian people to “help take back your country.” This time he promised the U.S. would grant them “immunity” amid the war and ongoing dangers under the current Iranian regime.

“So you’ll be perfectly safe with total immunity,” Trump said, without giving any details about what that meant. “Or you’ll face absolutely guaranteed death.”

In the Axios interview, Trump derided 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, who has never been elected or appointed to a government position, as “a lightweight.”

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

“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” Trump said, referring to the acting president in the South American country. Delcy Rodriguez took power in January after a U.S. military operation captured Nicolas Maduro and whisked him to the U.S. to face federal drug conspiracy charges.

Iran remains defiant

Iran has not requested talks with the U.S. to bring an end to the widening war, Iran’s ambassador to Egypt told the Associated Press on Thursday. Ambassador Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour denied comments by Trump that Iran wants to negotiate.

He said a lack of trust makes such engagement impossible after talks for a possible nuclear deal twice failed and ended with war.

“There will be no trust in Trump,” Ferdousi Pour said.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. navy of committing “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people.

The Iranian ship was returning from an exercise hosted by the Indian navy that the U.S. also joined. Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued. Araghchi said it had been carrying “almost 130” crew.

An Iranian cleric later called on state television for the shedding of both Israeli and “Trump’s blood.”

The statement from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented a rare call for violence by an ayatollah, one of Shiite Islam’s highest clerical ranks. There are dozens in Iran.

Sri Lanka said more than 200 sailors aboard another Iranian warship near its coast were being escorted to a naval base outside the capital, Colombo. The ship will be taken to a Sri Lankan port, said Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The war keeps expanding

The U.S. military said early Friday that an Iranian drone carrier was attacked and set ablaze.

The message from the U.S. military’s Central Command showed black-and-white footage of the carrier ablaze after multiple strikes hit it. The Iranian military did not immediately acknowledge the attack.

Speaking at U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, Hegseth gave few details Thursday when he promised an upcoming surge.

“It’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities,” Hegseth said. “And it’s more bomber pulses more frequently.”

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, said U.S. forces have sunk more than 30 of Iran’s ships, including a drone carrier ship “roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s top general said waves of strikes had destroyed 80 per cent of Iran’s air defences and 60 per cent of its missile launchers. Still, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said: “The threat has not yet been removed.”

Gulf countries also reported coming under fire. The U.S. State Department announced it was closing the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which activated air defence systems in response to incoming missiles.

Iran has fired waves of missiles and drones at American-allied Kuwait, where a drone strike Sunday killed six American soldiers.

In the United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near the Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces. Authorities said falling shrapnel wounded several people.

Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and later reported a missile attack. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in a province bordering Jordan.

Bahrain said an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery Thursday, sparking a fire that was extinguished. It said no casualties were reported.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of “a groundless act of terror and aggression” after a drone crashed Thursday near an airport, injuring four civilian workers. Another drone fell near a school.

Iran denied it launched drones toward Azerbaijan. Iran has also repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets, even as its missiles and drones have hit such sites.

Ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. That has caused oil prices to soar and U.S. stock prices to sink.

Israel issues evacuation warning for Beirut suburbs

Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday evening after urging residents to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately.” Two hospitals evacuated patients and staff.

The Lebanese health ministry said the death toll has risen to 123 since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which struck Israel in the opening days of the war.

A spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Tilak Pokharel, said Thursday that peacekeepers had seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border.

By Jon Gambrell, David Rising, Elena Becatoros And Samy Magdy

Rising reported from Bangkok, Becatoros from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Lebanon, Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok, Melanie Lidman 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.