Trump says 'nobody knows who the hell is running' Iran

US President Donald Trump has questioned who currently holds
effective authority in Iran, saying the country's senior leadership
has been heavily depleted during the eight-month war with the
United States and Israel.

Speaking at an event in Maryland on Tuesday, October 6, Trump
said the loss of senior Iranian figures had created uncertainty in
Washington over who was now directing the country.

“Their leaders are gone, their second group of leaders are gone,
and the biggest problem I have is nobody knows who the hell is
running the country,” Trump said.

Trump's remarks came amid continuing uncertainty surrounding
Iran's leadership following the death of former Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the US-Israeli war
against Iran on February 28.

Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, subsequently succeeded him as
supreme leader. However, he has not appeared publicly since
suffering injuries in the same attack that killed his father.

Iran has rejected Washington's suggestion that its
decision-making structure is unclear.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on October 4
that US officials were well aware of their Iranian counterparts and
understood how decisions were made in the country.

“The problem is actually the opposite: it lies in the
contradictory positions and mixed messaging from US officials,”
Baghaei said.

Questions over Iran's current command structure have
nevertheless increasingly surfaced in statements by senior US
officials.

Vice President JD Vance said Washington was communicating with
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas
Araqchi but remained uncertain about how much authority they
exercised within Iran's wider political system.

“One of the things we picked up on is it's not totally clear how
their country makes decisions,” Vance said.

The comments come as the war that began on February 28 enters
its eighth month.

Iran has responded to US-Israeli attacks with strikes against
Israel as well as targets in Gulf states hosting US military
facilities. US-Israeli strikes against Iran and Israeli military
operations in Lebanon have meanwhile killed thousands of people and
displaced millions.

Trump also signalled on Tuesday that Washington was approaching
a decision over how to bring the conflict to an end.

“We have to finish up, and it's only a question of which way we
want to do it: the nice way or the not-so-nice way,” Trump said,
adding that a decision would become clear “pretty soon.”

The prolonged conflict is also having domestic economic
consequences in the United States, particularly through higher fuel
prices, as the country approaches November's midterm elections,
when control of Congress will be contested.

Trump has faced pressure over the rising cost of gasoline and
diesel while offering changing timelines and objectives for the
military campaign against Iran.

Tehran, however, maintains that its political and institutional
decision-making structures continue to function and has portrayed
Washington's claims of uncertainty over the country's leadership as
a reflection of contradictory messaging within the US
administration rather than confusion inside Iran.

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