BBC Expert Tears Apart Trump's Boast That US Brought About Iranian Regime Change

The BBC’s Lyse Doucet poured cold water on Donald Trump’s claim that his war in Iran triggered leadership change within the regime.

After American and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the war, the US president has insisted that its new leadership is “less radical and much more reasonable”.

Trump said earlier this month: “If you look already because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before.

“It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change.”

But, the BBC’s chief international correspondent threw that claim into doubt as she reported directly from Iran.

“Trump keeps saying he’s brought about regime change,” Doucet told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme. “There’s really no sign of that and the Iranians would be the first to tell you, yes, the faces have changed, but it’s still the same order.”

The Iranian regime claims the Ayatollah has been replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, but he has not been seen in public since his new role was announced.

The BBC expert pointed out how last week’s failed negotiations in Pakistan between the US and Iran were the first sign of what the new regime might be like.

Doucet said: “These talks – these face-to-face, high-level talks which took place in Islamabad with a US delegation headed by JD Vance – they give us the first indications of what kind of a leadership this is going to be and what they will do for their people, or indeed against their people.”

Doucet also noted that the new head of the supreme national security council is “a hardliner among the hardliners” while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is “literally calling the shoots” – suggesting any regime change has not made Tehran more “reasonable”.

She also said speculation that the IRGC would play a more pivotal role in the wake of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death has been around for years.

Doucet said: “Now they are doing so in an even more dramatic way, more militarised, more hardline.”

She added: “There’s no doubt that while they [Iran’s leaders] have been fighting an external enemy, they’ve been keeping a tight grip on the internal enemies as well, as they would see it.”

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.