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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Deborah Cole in Berlin and Sam Jones in Madrid

Trump says he fears Iran’s next leader could be ‘as bad as the previous person’

Friedrich Merz listens in an Oval Office armchair as Donald Trump speaks beside him
Donald Trump was answering a reporter’s question at a press conference with the visiting German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Photograph: Samuel Corum/EPA

Donald Trump said his biggest fear in the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran would be regime change that brought in leadership “as bad as the previous person”.

At an Oval Office news conference with the visiting German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, the US president was asked by a reporter about the “worst-case scenario” of the risky operation that led to the assassination on Saturday of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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