Dan Shapiro, who was the US ambassador to Israel under former US President Barack Obama, predicted that next week US President Donald Trump will try to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Times of Israel reported.
The prediction comes after Khamenei blamed Trump for the violence during the mass anti-government protests that have spread across Iran in recent weeks, and after Trump said in an interview that Iran needs new leadership and that the 86-year-old Khamenei is a "sick man".
"Trump's comments to Politico about the need for new leadership in Iran and Khamenei's senseless provocation of Trump in X make me "I believe Trump will try to assassinate the supreme leader this week," Shapiro wrote on the social network X.
"A US aircraft carrier strike group will soon arrive in the Middle East, making it easier for the US to launch large-scale strikes on Iran and be prepared to defend itself against Iranian retaliation."
Shapiro wrote that the US could launch other strikes against Iranian forces. The strikes, he says, “would allow Trump to say he remains loyal to the Iranian protesters he encouraged and that he is making good on his threat to make the regime pay for their slaughter.”
Thousands have died in the protests.
But he warns that killing Khamenei “falls far short of achieving regime change in Iran.”
He writes: “The elimination of Khamenei, if it occurs, will likely be followed initially by a takeover by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and an increasingly aggressive and repressive regime.
Regime change, when it does occur, will be the work of the Iranian people. Supporting them in their quest for freedom will require sustained focus and mostly non-kinetic measures. It will not be achieved with a single attack."
Shapiro served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2011 until the end of Obama's presidency in early 2017. He later held several Middle East-related positions in the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The protests erupted on December 28 over high inflation and economic hardship exacerbated by sanctions, and have become the most serious challenge to Iran's spiritual leadership since 1979.
Trump has repeatedly threatened intervention, including "very strong action", if Iran executes protesters.