Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and US President Donald Trump. (Office of the Iranian leader via AP; Shutterstock)
President Trump blames Iran’s supreme leader for 2024 assassination plots, says most of Khamenei’s potential successors were killed in strikes over the weekend.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump blamed Iran’s slain supreme leader for a pair of assassination plots against him in 2024, linking the ayatollah’s killing on Saturday to Iran’s threats on his life.
Speaking with ABC News, Trump took credit for the Israeli Air Force strikes in Tehran on Saturday morning that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other senior Iranian officials and linked the killing to assassination plots by Iran against him during the 2024 presidential election.
“I got him before he got me,” Trump said. “They tried twice. Well, I got him first.”
The president mused that the attacks over the weekend likely eliminated the successors tapped to replace Khamenei in the event of his incapacitation.
“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump said. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”
Trump earlier said that it is believed that 48 senior Iranian officials were killed over the weekend.
The president also spoke with The New York Times, telling the paper that it “won’t be difficult” for the US and Israel to maintain intense military pressure on Iran.
“We have tremendous amounts of ammunition. You know, we have ammunition stored all over the world in different countries.”
When asked how long the war will last, Trump predicted it could take “four to five weeks,” though he could not rule out either a longer or shorter duration for the conflict.
In an earlier statement on Sunday, Trump said he estimated the war with Iran would last “four weeks or less.”
“It’s always been a four-week process. As strong as it is, it’s a big country; it’ll take four weeks or less.”
“I think it’s going as per plan, other than we took out their entire leadership — far, far more than what we thought.”
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