U.S. officials have stressed that President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran are not primarily aimed at regime change.

In an interview with Fox News published on Monday, Vice-President JD Vance said that “in a perfect world”, the United States would welcome a leader in Tehran willing to cooperate with Washington.

But President Donald Trump’s main objective, he said, was to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon, regardless of who is in power.

“Whatever happens with the regime in one form or another, it’s incidental to the president’s primary objective here, which is to make sure the Iranian terrorist regime does not build a nuclear bomb,” he said. “Obviously, the president and I would prefer that you have a friendly regime in Iran … but fundamentally, so long as we achieve the president’s objective to make it clear that Iran can’t build the bomb, I think the president will be happy with the outcome.”

In his first video message following Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran on Saturday, Mr Trump urged Iranians to take control of their government.

“When we are finished, take over your government,” he said to the country’s 90 million citizens.

U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio on Monday underlined a distinction between the U.S. administration’s secondary desires and the concrete objectives of its operations.

While a change in leadership in Iran might be welcome, the priority is to ensure that whoever rules in the coming year does not possess drones or ballistic missiles.

(dpa/NAN)