US President Donald Trump on Sunday raised the question of regime change in Iran following US strikes against key nuclear sites over the weekend, as senior officials in his administration warned Tehran against retaliation.
"It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,” but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Trump's post came after officials in his administration, including US Vice President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, stressed they were not working to overthrow Iran's government.
"This mission was not and has not been about regime change," Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon, calling the mission "a precision operation" targeting Iran's nuclear program.
‘Operation Midnight Hammer’
Vance, in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker," said, "our view has been very clear that we don't want a regime change."
"We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it's already been built out. We want to end their nuclear programme, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here," Vance said, adding the US "had no interest in boots on the ground."
"Operation Midnight Hammer" was known only to a small number of people in Washington and at the US military's headquarters for Middle East operations in Tampa, Florida.
Complete with deception, seven B-2 bombers flew for 18 hours from the United States into Iran to drop 14 bunker-buster bombs, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, told reporters.
In total, the US launched 75 precision-guided munitions, including more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, and more than 125 military aircraft in the operation against three nuclear sites, Caine said.
The operation pushes the Middle East to the brink of a major new conflagration in a region already aflame for more than 20 months with wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and a toppled dictator in Syria.
