US President Donald Trump has taunted Iran for being left without leadership, declaring at a rally on Sunday that the country has “no leaders” left and that he is struggling to identify anyone on the other side with whom to negotiate, as tensions simmer between the two nations after months of intermittent warfare. “They have no airplanes, no ships, no leaders, no anything… Their level-one leader is gone… their level-two leader is gone… I’ve got to stop, because I have to figure out with whom we are negotiating,” Mr Trump told the gathering. Video of the remarks has gone viral online.
The pointed comments follow a war that began with US and Israeli airstrikes killing several of Iran’s most senior political and military figures in the opening weeks, among them Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, was also seriously injured in the strikes and, although he has continued to issue statements, has yet to make a public appearance.
Washington and Tehran have battled on and off over the past nine months, and strikes are currently paused. Mr Trump, however, has been hinting that military action will resume after the US midterm elections on November 3. As part of the build-up, he has dispatched a third aircraft carrier group to the region along with 10,000 sailors and Marines. Iran, for its part, is preparing for a possible onslaught.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sought to project defiance on Sunday, saying a potential resumption of the war would not change his country’s positions. “Recently, there has been talk of a new war, but I am already thinking about the post-war period. Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP. “They have already done so twice and have seen the results. If they want to try again, they know they will achieve no different outcome from those of the past,” he added.
The two countries have exchanged sporadic fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime corridor responsible for transporting the bulk of global oil supplies. Those flare-ups had ebbed in recent weeks, but the messaging from Mr Trump and his administration has renewed tensions in the volatile region.
Mr Araghchi also cautioned that the conflict has fundamentally altered the strategic waterway and that old arrangements cannot be restored. “The current war has changed everything. We must accept that new realities are taking hold. Shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz will no longer be the same, and the management of the strait will no longer be the same,” he said.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trump-says-gotta-stop-killing-iran-leaders-to-know-who-us-is-dealing-with-12233804#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-10-25 18:38:00
