A week after US President Donald Trump urged Iranians to overthrow the Iranian regime, he admitted on Friday that
“I really think that’s a big hurdle to climb for people that don’t have weapons. I think it’s a very big hurdle… It’ll happen, but it probably will be, maybe not immediately,” Trump told Fox News Radio.
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Earlier in the day, Trump told G7 leaders in a virtual meeting that Iran is "about to surrender", claiming success in Operation Epic Fury. "I got rid of a cancer that was threatening us all," Trump told the leaders after they urged him to end the war quickly.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Trump not to allow Russia to exploit the war or receive sanctions relief, reported Axios.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday said the US is "decimating the radical Iranain regime's military" which is "desperate and hiding" "They've gone underground, cowering," Hegseth said.
Claiming that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is "wounded and likely disfigured," Hegseth said, "Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders — so why only a written statement? I think you know why. He’s scared. He’s injured. He’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them."
"He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement," said Hegseth.
Mojtaba is said to have lost a leg and suffered liver rupture during an air strike, according to The Sun. Whether this was the same strike that killed his father has not been officially confirmed.