Trump says he must 'stop' killing Iranian leaders to find US counterpart

Campaign trail remarks

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he must cease targeting Iranian commanders to ascertain who Washington should engage in negotiations with, describing the Islamic Republic's leadership ranks as decimated during a campaign rally in the US state of Georgia. "I gotta stop" killing Iranian leaders, Trump told supporters, "because I gotta figure out who the hell we're negotiating with." He noted that Tehran currently lacks functioning military capabilities, adding: "They don't have any airplanes, no ships, no anything, no leaders. Level one leader is gone, level two leader is gone."

JCPOA termination defended

Trump also defended his 2018 decision to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal reached under then-President Barack Obama, asserting the move had been executed at a critical moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. "I terminated one of the worst deals ever made, Barack Hussein Obama's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or as some people call it, the Iran nuclear deal, which was a road to a nuclear weapon for Iran. I terminated it, luckily, just in time," he said.

Military operations

The president referenced recent military actions against Iranian facilities, stating that Washington had degraded Tehran's nuclear infrastructure through targeted operations conducted between February and May. "We obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity with Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury," Trump said, referring to strikes launched earlier this year. He added that the US had defeated Iran "militarily, financially, and otherwise" and emphasized that Washington must ensure Tehran "never, ever have a nuclear weapon."