Trump says Iran is still pursuing diplomatic avenues to end the war, but he wants to 'fight more than they do'

...this is a pattern of cruelty and barbarism with Trump, that he and his military leaders have a demonstrated hunger to kill people who are either surrendering or suing for peace.

Headquarters @HQNewsNow 1h
Trump: They're tough and they wanna fight. They are calling and saying 'we want to make a deal.' I said 'you're a little bit late.' We want to fight more than they do'

The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline 41m
Hegseth: "The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we're doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more.”

Q: “The president said earlier today in an interview that he would like to have a say in who's the next leader of Iran. Is this an expansion of your military objective?”

Hegseth: “There's no expansion in our objectives.”



___In an interview with Axios published Thursday, Trump said the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, is most likely to succeed his father, but that the pick would be “unacceptable” to him.

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

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodríguez] in Venezuela,” the president said.

Trump’s demand that he decide the next leader of Iran, however, could complicate efforts to end the conflict in that country, which was long run by the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran before the Iranian revolution. The shah’s rule was strengthened by a coup in 1953 backed by the U.S. and British governments in which the CIA was instrumental.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5769144-trump-opposes-khamenei-son/


...this is what a war of choice looks like. Ethnic cleansing and nation-building with no pursuit of actual peace and no clear path for Iran to end the war Donald Trump started.