DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump said Thursday he wants to be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader, calling front-runner Mojtaba Khamenei “a lightweight” in an interview with Axios, as the United States and Israel entered a sixth day of strikes targeting Iran’s military, nuclear program and leadership. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that American firepower over Tehran was “about to surge dramatically,” and Iran’s ambassador to Egypt said his country had not requested talks and that there would be “no trust in Trump.”
The conflict has expanded to affect at least 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond, with the reported death toll rising to at least 1,230 in Iran, more than 120 in Lebanon and six U.S. troops, as U.S. forces sank more than 30 Iranian ships, fighting intensified in Lebanon, and Iranian strikes reached Gulf states from Kuwait to Bahrain.
Trump on Iran’s next leader
Trump drew a comparison to U.S. involvement in Venezuela, where Delcy Rodríguez became acting president after a U.S. military operation captured Nicolás Maduro.
“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” Trump said in the Axios interview.
“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said.
Trump ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who has never been elected or appointed to a government position, as a replacement for his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes of the conflict. Trump called the younger Khamenei “a lightweight.”
Speaking at the White House, Trump again urged Iranian citizens to “help take back your country,” offering what he described as “immunity” to those who did so. “So you’ll be perfectly safe with total immunity,” Trump said. “Or you’ll face absolutely guaranteed death.”
Congress sustains strikes
Trump’s decision to strike Iran survived challenges in both chambers of Congress on Thursday. The House defeated a resolution to halt the bombardment, a day after the Senate voted down a similar measure.
Military escalation
Hegseth, speaking at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, promised an escalation but provided limited specifics. “It’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities,” Hegseth said. “And it’s more bomber pulses more frequently.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, said U.S. forces have sunk more than 30 Iranian ships, including a drone carrier described as roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier. The U.S. military said early Friday it had attacked and set ablaze a second Iranian drone carrier, releasing footage of the vessel on fire after multiple strikes. The Iranian military did not immediately acknowledge the attack.
Israel’s top general, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said waves of strikes had destroyed 80 percent of Iran’s air defenses and 60 percent of its missile launchers, though he added: “The threat has not yet been removed.”
The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 120 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.
Frigate sinking
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. Navy of committing “an atrocity at sea” after U.S. forces sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people. The ship was returning from a naval exercise hosted by India that U.S. forces had also attended. Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued; Araghchi said the ship had been carrying “almost 130” crew.
Sri Lanka said more than 200 sailors from a second Iranian warship near its coast were being escorted to a naval base outside the capital, Colombo.
Iran rules out talks
Iran has not requested talks with the United States to end the war, Iran’s ambassador to Egypt told the Associated Press on Thursday. Ambassador Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour denied statements by Trump that Iran wants to negotiate, citing two failed nuclear deal attempts that ended in conflict.
“There will be no trust in Trump,” Ferdousi Pour said.
Regional spread
Gulf states reported coming under Iranian fire throughout Thursday. The U.S. State Department closed the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which activated air defense systems against incoming missiles. A drone strike the previous Sunday had killed six American soldiers in Kuwait.
In the United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces; falling shrapnel wounded several people. Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha following a reported missile attack. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in a province bordering Jordan. An Iranian missile struck a state-run oil refinery in Bahrain, sparking a fire that was extinguished with no reported casualties.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of “a groundless act of terror and aggression” after a drone crashed near an airport Thursday, injuring four civilian workers, and a second drone fell near a school. Iran denied launching drones toward Azerbaijan.
Ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. The attacks have caused oil prices to rise and U.S. stock prices to decline.
Lebanon fighting
Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday evening; two hospitals evacuated patients and staff. The Lebanese health ministry said the death toll has risen to 123 since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which struck Israel in the opening days of the conflict.
A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Tilak Pokharel, said Thursday that peacekeepers had observed ground combat in the area as additional Israeli forces crossed the border.
Iranian cleric issues threat
An Iranian ayatollah, Abdollah Javadi Amoli, called on state television for the shedding of Israeli and “Trump’s blood.” The Associated Press described the statement as a rare call for violence from one of Shiite Islam’s highest clerical ranks.