Trump says he has candidate to replace Iran's new supreme leader

ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump said Monday that he has someone in mind to replace Iran's newly appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, without providing any details.

“I have no message for him. None whatsoever," he told CBS News.

Trump has been openly critical of Khamenei's appointment since it was announced over the weekend, calling it "a big mistake" and saying he doubted it would last.

He earlier warned that any Iranian leader who failed to gain Washington's approval "would not last long," and The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Trump had privately told aides he would support killing Khamenei if he refuses to meet US demands, including dismantling Iran's nuclear program.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, became Iran's third supreme leader since the 1979 revolution after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the opening wave of US-Israeli joint attacks on Feb. 28.

- Iran has 'nothing left' militarily

Trump said the US-Israeli campaign is "very far ahead of schedule" and that he thinks the war is "very complete, pretty much."

He also suggested that Iran had been left militarily devastated following days of attacks and that Tehran has "nothing left in a military sense."

Iran has no navy, no communications, no air force, missiles "down to a scatter" and "drones are being blown up all over the place," he said.

Trump had earlier said the campaign would last four to five weeks, then walked back that timeline, saying operations were "ahead of schedule."

On the Strait of Hormuz, he said ships are now moving through it but warned that he is "thinking about taking over" the key waterway and that Iran "better not try anything cute, or it's going to be the end of that country."

The US and Israel launched a joint offensive against Iran on Feb. 28. More than 1,200 people have been killed and over 10,000 others injured so far in the US-Israeli assault, according to Iranian authorities.

Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries that are home to US military assets.