周六，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普呼吁结束阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊长达37年的统治。
“现在是时候在伊朗寻找新的领导人了，”特朗普告诉《政客》，此前要求结束该政权的大规模抗议活动似乎已经减弱。
过去三周，全国各地数千名抗议者被杀害，这促使特朗普多次威胁要进行军事干预。周二，特朗普呼吁伊朗民众继续抗议并“接管机构”，并表示“援助即将到来”。
第二天，总统突然改变了说法，称他已获悉杀戮已经停止。
周六，当被问及美国可能在伊朗采取的军事行动规模时，特朗普表示：“他（哈梅内伊）做出的最明智的决定就是两天前没有绞死800多人。”
在哈梅内伊的X账号发布了一系列针对特朗普的敌对信息后不久，特朗普发表了上述评论。哈梅内伊指责这位美国总统应对伊朗境内的致命暴力和动乱负责。
哈梅内伊写道，“我们认为美国总统有罪，因为他给伊朗人民造成了人员伤亡、财产损失和诽谤。”
在另一篇帖子中，他表示特朗普错误地将暴力团体描述为代表伊朗人民，称之为“令人震惊的诽谤”。
特朗普在阅读了这些帖子后表示，德黑兰的统治者依靠镇压和暴力来维持统治。“作为一国领导人，他的罪过在于彻底摧毁了这个国家，并以前所未有的程度使用了暴力，”特朗普说。“为了维持国家的运转——即使这种运转水平非常低——领导层应该专注于妥善治理国家，就像我治理美国一样，而不是为了维持统治而屠杀成千上万的人。”
特朗普补充道，“领导力在于尊重，而非恐惧和死亡。”
在地区局势动荡之际，华盛顿和德黑兰之间的言辞愈发尖锐。此前，哈梅内伊发表公开讲话，声称“伊朗人民已经战胜了美国”。
特朗普的言论更加激烈，他直接谴责了哈梅内伊和伊朗的治理体系。
“这是个病态的人，他应该好好治理国家，停止杀戮，”特朗普说。“由于领导不力，他的国家是世界上最不宜居的地方。”
伊朗官员尚未对此事作出回应。
President Donald Trump on Saturday called for an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 37-year reign.
“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told POLITICO, as widespread protests calling for an end to the regime appear to have waned.
Thousands of protesters across the country were killed over the last three weeks, prompting Trump to repeatedly threaten military intervention. On Tuesday, Trump called on Iranians to keep protesting and “take over institutions,” saying that “help is on its way.”
The next day, the president abruptly changed course, saying he had been informed that the killings had stopped.
“The best decision he ever made was not hanging more than 800 people two days ago,” Trump said Saturday, when asked about the size of a possible U.S. military operation in Iran.
Trump’s comments came shortly after Khamenei’s X account posted a series of hostile messages aimed at Trump, accusing the U.S. president of being responsible for deadly violence and unrest in Iran.
“We find the US President guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation,” Khamenei wrote.
In another post, he said Trump had mischaracterized violent groups as representing the Iranian people, calling it “an appalling slander.”
Trump, after being read the posts, said Tehran’s rulers rely on repression and violence to govern. “What he is guilty of, as the leader of a country, is the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before,” Trump said. “In order to keep the country functioning — even though that function is a very low level — the leadership should focus on running his country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing people by the thousands in order to keep control.”
“Leadership is about respect, not fear and death,” Trump added.
The exchange underscores a sharpening rhetoric between Washington and Tehran at a volatile moment for the region, and as Khamenei recently made a public address in which he claimed that “the Iranian nation has defeated America.”
Trump went further in personal terms, denouncing Khamenei and the Iranian system of governance.
“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump said. “His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”
Iranian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.