Donald Trump backs regime change with bombs – here’s best option to stop Iran’s collapse | World | News

A well-established pro-democracy group in Iran has been first out of the blocks to declare a provisional government in the wake of US-Israeli air strikes against the ruling regime. Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, unveiled a 10-point plan – effectively an Iranian bill of rights – and declared a provisional government today. Donald Trump has been unequivocal that the ongoing attacks are about removing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from power and ending half a century of theocratic dictatorship. Reports suggest he may already be dead, along with high-ranking members of his hated Revolutionary Guard.

In an address from his Mar-a-Lago resort President Trump said: “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

But Iran experts are concerned the US / Israel attacks on strategic targets will leave a power vacuum. The son of the deposed Shah Reza Pahlavi- nicknamed Baby Shah – also has designs on assuming power in Tehran, and high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guard have also been tipped to take over if Khemenei falls.

Holly Dagres, the Iranian-American author of The Iranist, a newsletter on Iranian current affairs, said: “I think that there are probably conversations where the possibility of taking out the supreme leader is an option… There’s a common assumption that some IRGC type would rise from the ashes and take the helm of the country.”

Whatever the Trump attack effects, there is likely going to be a bitter scrap for succession.

President Trump’s military operation is expected to last several days and follows the US massing its largest military build-up in the Middle East since the Iraq war in 2003.

Iran has attempted counter strikes on American assets in Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar Jordan and the UAE, but they have been largely dealt with by anti-missile batteries and actually highlighted how weak Iran is militarily.

The US focused on hundreds of “high-value targets” including IRGC facilities and capabilities, naval facilities and “underground facilities” linked to the country’s nuclear programme.

One US official said: “We have effectively suppressed their air defences.” Another added the Iranian response had been “ineffective”.

The US’s first strike in today’s wave of attacks appeared to target the offices of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. This was also the target of MEK insurgents, linked to Marayam Rajavi’s NCRI, on Monday.

Announcing plans for a provisional government today Ms Rajavi said: “Our path leads toward the future and the establishment of a democratic republic, not a return to the buried dictatorship of the past.

“Our homeland continues to endure greater pain and destruction under the rule of religious fascism. In these difficult circumstances, I call on all of you, especially the courageous youth of our country, to care for civilians and the general public, particularly children and the elderly. Protect them and help one another.

“Now is the time for solidarity. Our strength lies in the unity and cohesion of our people against the religious dictatorship and the remnants of monarchical fascism that seek to steal the democratic revolution.

“In the war that has erupted today over the clerical regime’s nuclear and missile programs, programs that the Iranian Resistance exposed three decades ago, all parties involved must exercise the utmost care to prevent any harm to the Iranian people and to the country’s civilian infrastructure.”

“Baby Shah” Reza Pahlavi has been attempting, with some success, to build a political machine in exile and many Iranians who took to the streets in recent anti-government protests chanted his name and adopted the old monarchist flag bearing the lion as a symbol of resistance.

But during the January uprisings, which may have seen as many as 40,000 citizens killed by Khamenei’s henchmen, one of the key chants was “neither an Ayatollah nor a king” – a clear reference to Pahlavi. And even Donald Trump has said: “He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country. I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership.”

Marayam Rajavi is promising an interim government of six months before a free and fair national election.

Her 10-point plan includes an absolute rejection of clerical rule, freedom of speech, disbanding the IRGC, commitment to individual and social freedoms, an independent judiciary and separation of religion and state.