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Trump Says Iran Regime Change Could Be 'Best Thing'

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 13: US President Donald Trump gestures to members of the media after exiting Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on February 13, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Nathan Howard/Getty Images/AFP
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 13: US President Donald Trump gestures to members of the media after exiting Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on February 13, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Nathan Howard/Getty Images/AFP
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Trump Says Iran Regime Change Could Be 'Best Thing'

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 13: US President Donald Trump gestures to members of the media after exiting Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on February 13, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Nathan Howard/Getty Images/AFP
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 13: US President Donald Trump gestures to members of the media after exiting Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on February 13, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Nathan Howard/Getty Images/AFP

US President Donald Trump on Friday embraced potential regime change in Iran and declared that "tremendous power" will soon be in the Middle East, as the Pentagon sent a second aircraft carrier to the region.

Trump's military moves and tough talk comes even as Washington and Tehran seek to revive diplomacy over Tehran's long-running nuclear dispute with the West.

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will hold negotiations with Iran on Tuesday in Geneva, with representatives from Oman acting as mediators.

The source said Witkoff and Kushner will also meet officials from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday in Geneva in the US drive to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Asked if he wanted regime change in Iran, Trump responded that it "seems like that would be the best thing that could happen." He declined to share who he wanted to take over Iran, but said "there are people."

"For 47 years, they've been talking and talking and talking," Trump said after a military event at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "In the meantime, we've lost a lot of lives ⁠while they talk. Legs ⁠blown off, arms blown off, faces blown off. We've been going on for a long time."

Washington wants nuclear talks with Iran to also cover the country's ballistic missiles, support for armed groups around the region and the treatment of the Iranian people. Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions, but has ruled out linking the issue to missiles.

Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no agreement is reached, while Tehran has vowed to retaliate, stoking fears of a wider war as the US amasses forces in the Middle East. The US targeted Iran's nuclear facilities in strikes last year.

When asked what was left to be targeted ⁠at the nuclear sites, Trump said the "dust." He added: "If we do it, that would be the least of the mission, but we probably grab whatever is left."

The carrier Gerald R. Ford will join the carrier Abraham Lincoln, several guided-missile destroyers, fighter jets and surveillance aircraft that have been moved to the Middle East in recent weeks. The Gerald R. Ford, the United States' newest and the world's largest carrier, has been operating in the Caribbean with its escort ships and took part in operations in Venezuela earlier this year.

Asked earlier on Friday why a second aircraft carrier was headed to the Middle East, Trump said: "In case we don't make a deal, we'll need it ... if we need it, we'll have it ready."

One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the carrier would take at least a week to reach the Middle East.

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World

Zelenskiy Says US Too often Asks Ukraine, Not Russia, for Concessions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 14, 2026. REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 14, 2026. REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen
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Zelenskiy Says US Too often Asks Ukraine, Not Russia, for Concessions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 14, 2026. REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, February 14, 2026. REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy voiced hope on Saturday that US-brokered peace talks next week in Geneva would be serious and substantive, but said Ukraine was being asked "too often" to make concessions in the negotiations.

Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations are due to meet in the Swiss lakeside city on Tuesday and Wednesday as US President Donald Trump seeks to push through a deal to end Europe's biggest war since 1945.

"We truly hope that the trilateral meetings next week will be serious, substantive, helpful for all us but honestly sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completely different things," Zelenskiy said in a speech at the annual Munich Security Conference.

Ukraine and Russia, which invaded its neighbour in February 2022, have engaged in two recent rounds of talks brokered by Washington in Abu Dhabi described by the sides as constructive but achieving no major breakthroughs.

Zelenskiy called for greater action from Ukraine's allies to press Russia into making peace - both in the form of tougher sanctions and more weapons supplies.

Recalling his appeal four years ago, when he spoke at the same conference days before tens of thousands of Russian forces poured into Ukraine, Zelenskiy said there was too much talk by Western officials and not enough action.

Trump has the power to force Putin to declare a ceasefire and needed to do so, Zelenskiy said. Ukrainian officials have said a ceasefire is required to hold a referendum on any peace deal, which would be organised alongside national elections.

The Ukrainian leader, a former television entertainer, acknowledged he was feeling "a little bit" of pressure from Trump, who yesterday said Zelenskiy should not miss the "opportunity" to make peace soon and urged him "to get moving".

"The Americans often return to the topic of concessions and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia," Zelenskiy said.

Instead, Zelenskiy said, he wanted instead to hear what compromises Moscow would be ready for, as Ukraine had already made many of its own.

DEADLOCK OVER TERRITORY

Land remains the major sticking point in negotiations, with Russia demanding that Ukraine cede the remaining 20% of the eastern area of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture - something Kyiv steadfastly refuses to do.

Zelenskiy said he was instead ready to discuss a US proposal for a free trade zone in that region, while freezing the rest of the 1,200-km (745-mile) front line.

Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine's national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Analysts say Moscow has gained about 1.5% of Ukrainian territory since early 2024. Its recent air strikes on Ukraine's cities and electricity infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heating and power during the course of a bitterly cold winter.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly expressed concern in recent weeks that US. congressional mid-term elections in November could focus the Trump administration on domestic political issues after the summer.

Zelenskiy said he hoped the US would stay involved in the negotiations, and that there would be an opportunity for Europe, which he said was currently sidelined, to play a bigger role.

'EUROPE NOT PRESENT'

"Europe is practically not present at the table. It's a big mistake to my mind," he said.

Russia said its delegation to Geneva would be led by Putin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, a change from negotiations in Abu Dhabi at which Russia's team was led by military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.

Ukrainian sources have criticised Medinsky's handling of previous talks, accusing him of delivering history lessons to the Ukrainian team instead of engaging in substantive negotiations.

Zelenskiy, who has long argued that the best way to achieve peace is to force Russia to the table with military and economic pressure, said he had discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen punitive steps against tankers that export Russian oil.

Oil exports are a key revenue source for the Russian state, and in recent months some empty tankers have been targeted by Ukrainian drones.

On Saturday France's foreign minister said some G7 countries have expressed readiness to enact a maritime services ban on Russian oil and that Paris was "reasonably optimistic" it would be included in the European Union's next sanctions package.

World

Nobel Winner Transferred to Prison in Northern Iran

A photo provided by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation on October 2, 2023 shows Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. © AFP
A photo provided by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation on October 2, 2023 shows Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. © AFP
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Nobel Winner Transferred to Prison in Northern Iran

A photo provided by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation on October 2, 2023 shows Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. © AFP
A photo provided by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation on October 2, 2023 shows Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. © AFP

Iranian authorities have, without prior warning, transferred Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to a prison in the north of the country as concern grows over her health, her husband said on Saturday.

Mohammadi, who won the peace prize in 2023 in recognition for more than two decades of campaigning, was arrested on December 12 in the eastern city of Mashhad after speaking out against the clerical authorities at a funeral ceremony, AFP reported.

She spent time on hunger strike earlier this month and had been hospitalized before being returned to prison.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said this week it was "deeply appalled" by reports detailing "physical abuse and ongoing life-threatening mistreatment" of Mohammadi both during her arrest and in detention.

Since her arrest, Mohammadi had been held in Mashhad at the detention facility of the intelligence ministry and had only been allowed one phonecall with a brother inside Iran and another to her Iranian lawyer.

But she has now been transferred to prison in the city of Zanjan in the north of the country, said her husband Taghi Rahmani, who is based in Paris.

"This action was carried out without informing her family or her lawyer," he said on X, adding it was "intended to exile and displace Narges".

On December 7, she was handed a further six years in prison on charges of harming national security and was also given a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for propaganda against Iran's Islamic system.

On February 2 she began a hunger strike to protest the conditions of her imprisonment and the inability to make phone calls to lawyers and family but then ended the action after a week.

Her foundation has described her physical condition as "deeply alarming", saying she was transferred to hospital in Mashhad but then returned to prison "before completing her treatment".

Mohammadi was arrested before protests erupted nationwide later in December. The movement peaked in January, with authorities launching a crackdown that activists say has left thousands dead.

Over the past quarter-century, Mohammadi, 53, who was born in Zanjan, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her campaigning against Iran's use of capital punishment and the mandatory dress code for women.

World

About 200,000 Join Iran Demonstration in Munich

Protesters wave flags - with a lion and a sun against horizontal green, white and red stripes, the emblem of the monarchy overthrown in 1979- during a demonstration in Munich (Reuters).
Protesters wave flags - with a lion and a sun against horizontal green, white and red stripes, the emblem of the monarchy overthrown in 1979- during a demonstration in Munich (Reuters).
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About 200,000 Join Iran Demonstration in Munich

Protesters wave flags - with a lion and a sun against horizontal green, white and red stripes, the emblem of the monarchy overthrown in 1979- during a demonstration in Munich (Reuters).
Protesters wave flags - with a lion and a sun against horizontal green, white and red stripes, the emblem of the monarchy overthrown in 1979- during a demonstration in Munich (Reuters).

About 200,000 people joined a demonstration against the Iranian government in Munich on Saturday, police said, as world leaders gathered nearby for a security conference, AFP reported. 

The protesters rallied on Munich's Theresienwiese fairgrounds, denouncing the leadership of Iran's Islamic Republic following the deadly repression of nationwide protests in January.

Some waved flags with a lion and a sun against horizontal green, white and red stripes, the emblem of the monarchy overthrown in 1979.

Human rights groups have reported that thousands of protesters have been killed in Iran.

Rallies calling for international action against Tehran are also planned in Toronto and Los Angeles on Saturday.

The exiled son of the former shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday and called on US President Donald Trump to "help" the Iranian people.

Pahlavi, who has lived in exile since his father was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, urged an outside "humanitarian intervention to prevent more innocent lives being killed" in Iran.

The Theresienwiese, which hosts the huge annual Oktoberfest folk gathering, is located less than three kilometres (1.8 miles) from the security conference venue.

Last week, an estimated 10,000 people gathered in Berlin in response to a call from the MEK, an exiled opposition group considered "terrorist" by Tehran.