President Trump Demands Role in Choosing Iran's Next Leader

President Trump told NBC News in a phone interview that he wants Iran’s leadership “totally removed.”

He said the United States should “go in and clean out everything,” and that he has “some ideas about who would be a ‘good leader.’”

CBS News

Trump said he would “have to be involved” in the appointment process and called Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “unacceptable” and a “lightweight.”

CBS/AFP framed these comments amid an expanding U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran.

The U.S. sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka's coast, CBS/AFP reported.

Sri Lanka began transferring "more than 200 sailors" from the IRIS Bushehr to shore after the ship sought assistance while anchored outside the country's waters.

CBS News

The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies after the attack, and the Bushehr was to be moved to an eastern port.

CBS described the strike as "one of the rare instances since World War II in which a submarine sank a surface warship," highlighting the expanding scope of the campaign.

Iranian state television reported a leadership council met to discuss how to hold a meeting of the country's Assembly of Experts.

CBS named the leadership council members as President Masoud Pezeshkian, judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi and cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi.

The statement provided no timeline on the selection of the supreme leader, nor whether the Assembly would meet in person or remotely.

CBS noted that buildings associated with the Assembly of Experts have been attacked during the Israeli-U.S. airstrike campaign.

Saudi Arabia reported intercepting three Iranian drones east of Riyadh.

Israel announced it had launched a new round of strikes in Tehran, describing the operation as a "broad wave of strikes on infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in Tehran."

CBS News

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they fired missiles toward Tel Aviv after earlier explosions caused a blaze in an Israeli residential building.

AFP journalists heard two near-simultaneous waves of explosions in Tel Aviv, and rocket trails were seen over Netanya.

Qatar reported intercepting an Iranian drone targeting the Al Udeid airbase in Doha.

The U.S. Embassy in Qatar ordered all non-emergency government employees and their families to leave, and remaining personnel were told to shelter in place.

CBS News

A U.S. Army Central memo reviewed by CBS said Iranian intelligence likely identified and tracked U.S. forces moving off military installations in Kuwait before an Iranian strike that killed six American service members.

Smaller Iranian quad-copter drones were seen around Kuwait's Shuaiba port and were suspected of conducting reconnaissance ahead of the drone strike attack.