It is still possible that the US could use ground forces in some fashion. Further, the IDF has declined to provide confidence that the threat will be dealt with before the end of the war.
'We'll be leaving in pretty much the very near future,' Trump said.
Basij, a key paramilitary militia under the IRGC, has a violent history of suppressing protests, enforcing morality laws, and committing human rights abuses, including torture and sexual abuse.
Netanyahu stated that Israel was undermining Iran's regime in order to allow the Iranian people to rise up and replace it, but cautioned that it would not be an easy process.
Iran's top security official was constantly moving to different secret locations throughout the last two weeks, sources said, taking precautions to avoid being located by Israel.
Ali Larijani, a key behind-the-scenes figure in Iran, was killed in an IDF strike, leaving a major gap in the regime's leadership amid growing instability.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had held his first foreign policy session since being named supreme leader, and had taken a stance for revenge against the US and Israel that was “very tough and serious.”
Jordan’s carefully balanced neutrality has been expressed through both its diplomatic statements and through its actions, said Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the INSS, Tel Aviv University.
Iran lost the first round badly. Its nuclear sites are rubble. Its air defenses are gone. The Revolutionary Guards have taken casualties they won't acknowledge for months.
Larijani, the son of a Shia jurisprudence scholar, held several senior roles within the Islamic Republic during his career, most recently as the Supreme National Security Council Secretary.
The killing of Ali Larijani, who has been doing most of the work running the country for the wounded supreme leader, was a message to any still surviving Iranian leaders: you are out of time.
