Trump says he wants to be involved in picking Iran's next leader as war ripples across the region

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader as the U.S. and Israel hammered the country for a sixth day. Iran kept up retaliatory attacks on Israel, American bases and countries around the region.

Trump ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, a front-runner to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes of the war. Trump’s comments to the American news website Axios were likely to renew questions about whether the U.S. and Israel seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic or just a change in its policies, as the conflict has appeared increasingly open-ended.

The war has escalated each day, affecting an additional 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of drone attacks, which Tehran denied. Iran said the U.S. would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka a day earlier.

Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for Beirut’s southern suburbs as the fighting escalated with Iran-allied Hezbollah militants. U.N. peacekeepers reported ground combat in southern Lebanon as more Israeli troops crossed the border.

All the while, the U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with nationwide strikes, targeting their military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program.

Iran’s attacks have targeted their Arab neighbors, disrupted oil supplies and snarled global air travel. The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 120 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.

Trump’s decision to strike Iran won enough support from Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House on Thursday to defeat a resolution to halt the bombardment. The Senate voted down a similar measure a day earlier.

In the Axios interview, Trump derided the 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, who has never been elected or appointed to a government position, as “a lightweight.”

“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran," Trump said.

“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” said Trump, referring to the acting president in the South American country. Delcy Rodríguez took power in January after a U.S. military operation captured Nicolás Maduro and whisked him to the U.S. to face federal drug conspiracy charges.

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said this week that Iran’s next supreme leader — if he continues to threaten Israel, the U.S. and others — “will be a target for elimination.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday denied reports that Tehran has been in contact with the U.S. to push for a ceasefire.

“We don’t see any reason why we should negotiate with the U.S.,” Araghchi told NBC News. “When we negotiated with them twice, and every time they attacked us in the middle of negotiations.”

Araghchi also accused the U.S. Navy of committing “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people.

“The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” he said on social media.

The Iranian ship was returning from an exercise hosted by the Indian navy that the U.S. also joined. Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued. Araghchi said it had been carrying “almost 130” crew.

An Iranian cleric later called on state television for the shedding of both Israeli and “Trump’s blood.”

The statement from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented a rare call for violence by an ayatollah, one of Shiite Islam's highest clerical ranks. There are dozens in Iran.

Sri Lanka said another Iranian warship was anchored near its coast on Thursday and more than 200 sailors were being escorted to a naval base on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo. The ship will be taken to a Sri Lankan port, said Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The Israeli military carried out a wave of strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites, and its top general said that 80% of Iran’s air defenses and 60% of its missile launchers had been destroyed.

Still, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said: “The threat has not yet been removed."

Israel said holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City would be closed Friday after air sirens warned of missile attacks Thursday in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Closures include Christianity’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Judaism’s Western Wall. They will also affect tens of thousands of Muslims who pray at the compound on Fridays during Ramadan.

Gulf countries also reported coming under fire. The U.S. State Department announced it was closing the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which activated air defense systems after missiles were shot toward it.

Iran has fired waves of missiles and drones at the American-allied Gulf country since the start of the war. An Iranian drone strike Sunday killed six American soldiers in Kuwait.

In the United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near the Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces. Shrapnel fell to the ground, authorities said, and six people were wounded.

Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and later reported a missile attack. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in a province bordering Jordan.

Bahrain said an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery Thursday, sparking a fire that was extinguished. The refinery was still working, it said, and there were no reports of casualties.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of carrying out “a groundless act of terror and aggression” after a drone crashed Thursday near the airport in Nakhchivan, a region bordering Iran. Another drone fell near a school. Authorities said four civilian airport workers were wounded.

Aliyev said the military had been instructed “to prepare and implement retaliatory measures.”

Iran denied it launched drones toward Azerbaijan. Iran has also repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets, even as its missiles and drones have hit such sites.

Since the war began Saturday, ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. That has caused oil prices to soar and U.S. stock prices to sink.

Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday evening after urging residents to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately.” Two hospitals evacuated patients and staff.

The Lebanese health ministry said the death toll has risen to 123 since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which struck Israel in the opening days of the war.

A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Tilak Pokharel, said Thursday that peacekeepers had seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border.

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Rising reported from Bangkok, Becatoros from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. AP journalists around the world contributed.