US President Donald Trump announced that the United States has destroyed nine Iranian warships and is prepared to sink the rest of Iran's navy. Trump expressed his willingness to negotiate with the new Iranian leadership following the death of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a joint US and Israeli attack on the country. "They want to talk, and I have agreed to do so, so I will talk to them," he stated in a telephone interview with the American magazine The Atlantic. The Republican, who announced the attack on Saturday after failed nuclear negotiations with Tehran, noted that Iran took too long to reach an agreement: "They should have done it earlier. We're going after the rest. They should have given what was very easy to do earlier earlier." He made these statements on the same day that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed their missiles had hit the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, something denied by the US Central Command (Centcom). So far, the United States has reported the death of at least three of its military personnel since the start on Saturday of the 'Furious Epic' operation, a series of joint US and Israeli attacks against Iran, in which the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in power since 1989, and much of the Islamic Republic's military leadership were killed. Iran has vowed to avenge Khamenei's death and, to date, has attacked Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, among other US allies, where the United States maintains military bases. The Islamic Republic, going through its most complex moment since its founding in 1979, is also rushing to find a successor to Khamenei and appointed a triumvirate to pilot the transition. Trump, who is at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, announced the launch of this operation in the early hours of Saturday, aiming to overthrow the Iranian regime, despite Washington and Tehran maintaining negotiations for a new nuclear pact.
