Trump says he wants to be involved in picking Iran's next leader as war ripples across the region

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader as the U.S. and Israel hammered the country for a sixth day. Iran kept up its retaliatory attacks on Israel, American bases and countries around the region.

Speaking to American news website Axios, Trump ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, a front-runner to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes of the war. Trump’s comments were likely to renew questions about whether the U.S. and Israel seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic or just a change in its policies.

The war has meanwhile escalated each day, affecting an additional 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of attacking it with drones — though Tehran denied that. Iran said the U.S. would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka a day earlier.

Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for all of Beirut’s southern suburbs as the fighting escalated with Iran-allied Hezbollah militants. U.N. peacekeepers reported ground combat in southern Lebanon as more Israeli troops crossed the border.

All the while, the U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with nationwide strikes, targeting their military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program.

Iran’s attacks have targeted their Arab neighbors, disrupted oil supplies and snarled global air travel. The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 100 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.

Trump wants to be involved in picking Khamenei's successor

In the Axios interview, Trump derided the 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, who has never been elected or appointed to a government position, as “a light weight.”

“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran," Trump said.

“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” said Trump, referring to the acting president in the South American country. Delcy Rodríguez took power in January after Trump ordered a U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the U.S. to face federal drug conspiracy charges.

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said this week that Iran’s next supreme leader — if he continues to threaten Israel, the U.S. and others — “will be a target for elimination.”

Iran remains defiant

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. Navy of committing an “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean earlier in the week, killing at least 87 people.

“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” he said on social media.

The Iranian ship sunk by the U.S. Navy was returning from an exercise hosted by the Indian navy that the U.S. also joined. Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued. Araghchi said it had been carrying “almost 130” crew.

An Iranian cleric later called on state television for the shedding of both Israeli and “Trump’s blood.”

The statement from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented a rare call for violence by an ayatollah, one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam. There are dozens in Iran.

Sri Lanka said another Iranian warship was anchored near its coast on Thursday and that more than 200 sailors were being escorted to a naval base on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo. The ship will be taken to a port in the island nation’s eastern region, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.

The war keeps expanding

Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes on Iran's ballistic missile launch sites.

Gulf countries also reported coming under fire. In the United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near the Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces, and shrapnel fell to the ground, authorities said. Six people were wounded.

Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and later reported a missile attack on the city. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan.

Bahrain said an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery on Thursday, sparking a fire that was extinguished. The refinery was still working, it said, and there were no reports of casualties. Earlier, Bahrain said its forces had intercepted 75 Iranian ballistic missiles and 124 drones since the start of the war.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of carrying out “a groundless act of terror and aggression” after a drone crashed Thursday near the airport in Nakhchivan, a region bordering Iran. Another drone fell near a school. Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s office said four civilians, all airport workers, were wounded.

Aliyev said the military had been instructed “to prepare and implement retaliatory measures.”

Iran’s general staff of the armed forces denied it had launched drones toward Azerbaijan. Iran has also repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets, even as its missiles and drones have hit such sites.

Since the war began Saturday, ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. That has caused oil prices to soar.

Israel issues evacuation warning for Beirut suburbs

Israel issued an evacuation notice calling for all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” apparently signaling plans for heavy bombardment of the area.

Since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which struck Israel in the opening days of the war, Israel has hit sites in Beirut’s suburbs and issued a blanket warning for residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate.

The Israeli military said it had struck “several command centers” used by Hezbollah in Beirut. It showed video footage of a building being hit, but provided no further details.

A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said Thursday that peacekeepers had seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border.

“Ground combat was observed west of Kfar Kila,” a village near the border with Israel, overnight, UNIFIL spokesperson Tilak Pokharel said. Peacekeepers also saw “air attacks and flares and heard explosions" in the town of Khiyam, about five kilometers (three miles) from the border.

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Rising reported from Bangkok, Becatoros from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami contributed to this report.