What's next amid U.S.-Israel attack on Iran
In the days leading up to Saturday’s attack, President Trump said reasons to strike included that Iran had restarted its nuclear program, had enough nuclear material to build a bomb within days, and was developing long-range missiles that soon would be able to reach the United States, The New York Times reported.
But all three of the claims were “either false or unproven,” the Times said.
As he launched the bombing, Trump called on Iranians to “take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
The subsequent killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials, led Iranians to take to the streets — many of them to celebrate and many others to mourn.
On Sunday, the Times interviewed Trump on what’s next, and he “offered several seemingly contradictory visions of how power might be transferred to a new government — or even whether the existing Iranian power structure would run that government or be overthrown.”
When pressed, Trump said he hoped Iran’s elite military forces — including hardened officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who’ve held substantial influence and profited from the existing regime — would simply turn over their weapons to the Iranian people, the Times says.
It was those forces that killed thousands of protesters in January, the Times says.
Trump wouldn’t say how, or if, his administration would defend Iranians he’s said should overthrow the regime.
Could the Iranian public, in fact, topple the regime?
The Islamic Republic “is a revolutionary system that has invested heavily in planning for leadership changes. When under pressure, its structure is designed to pull together rather than fall apart,” says an analysis in Foreign Policy.
In an interview on MSNOW, former CIA Director Leon Panetta wondered whether the CIA or Mossad had prepared opposition leaders to form a government.
Wired reports that Iran is in a near-total internet blackout, which would make opposition organizing difficult.
Here is an update of developments as of this morning, from The Associated Press.
And here is a timeline of U.S. involvement in Iran starting in 1953, from USA Today.
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