by WorldTribune Staff, March 8, 2026 Real World News
U.S. President Donald Trump summed up the state of Iran’s rulers on Friday:
“Their Army is gone. Their Navy is gone. Their communications are gone. Their leaders are gone. Two sets of their leaders are gone. They’re down to their third set. Their Air Force is wiped out entirely. They have 32 ships. All 32 are at the bottom of the ocean. And other than that, they’re doing very well.”
Among the Iran regime leaders still among the living there is much infighting over who is calling which shots.
On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he had ordered the military to halt all attacks on Iran’s neighbors in the region except in self-defense, and said he “apologizes personally” for the attacks to date.
“The temporary leadership council approved yesterday that neighboring countries should no longer be targeted and missiles should not be fired unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries,” Pezeshkian said, according to the London-based independent news outlet Iran International.
“The armed forces have so far acted with a kind of ‘fire at will’ authority, but they have now been notified that from now on they must not attack neighboring countries or target them with missiles,” he said.
Within hours of those comments, a formal statement from the surviving leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stated:
“President Pezeshkian made a mistake, and our forces demonstrated his mistake. His comments were 5 hours ago, and since then Dubai and Abu Dhabi are being struck. Ignore Pezeshkian’s words during the war.”
Writing for The New York Sun on Saturday, David Jones noted: “Since America and Israel launched their coordinated air campaign on February 28, Iran has staged hundreds of missile on drone attacks on airports, refineries and other targets in countries including Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Bearing out the IRGC statement, continued strikes were reported in some of those countries Saturday, showing that some commanders, including those within the IRGC, were not receiving or were disregarding instructions from the civilian leadership.”
Crediting the American and Israeli assault for Pezeshkian’s policy shift, Trump said the Iranians “were looking to take over and rule the Middle East. It is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years, to surrounding Middle Eastern Countries.”
That, in turn, prompted a statement from Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who said on X that Pezeshkian’s “openness to de-escalation within our region … was almost immediately killed by President Trump’s misinterpretation of our capabilities, determination and intent. If Mr Trump seeks escalation, it is precisely what our Powerful Armed Forces have long been prepared for, and what he will get.”
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, wrote on X that all American and Israeli bases in the region are “legitimate and lawful targets.”
“The Islamic Republic has no red line in defending national interests. This battle continues,” Azizi wrote.
A lawmaker representing the holy city of Qom, Mohammad Manan Raeisi, described the Pezeshkian’s remarks as “humiliating” and said they showed that Iran’s Assembly of Experts should quickly move to select a new leader, according to Iran International.
“Did neighboring countries not place their land, assets and hotels at the disposal of our enemies? Should our military not have struck those bases and assets of the enemy that you are now apologizing for so humbly?” Raeisi wrote.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday that the new leader has been chosen and it is, as previously believed, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei.
The announcement had not been made official, analysts say, because Iran wants to move the new leader to a secure location.
“The name of Khamenei will continue,” said Ayatollah Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the clerical council charged with electing a new leader, said earlier on Sunday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Farsi account confirmed on X that “the hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor. We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you, either. This is a warning!”
The younger Khamenei has never held a formal position in the Islamic regime’s government, though he fought during the Iran-Iraq War and obtained the clerical rank of “hojjatoleslam” after studying in the seminaries of Hom.
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