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Iran Regime Change Would Require 'Complete Collapse,' Says Former State Dept. Official
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March 2, 2026
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9:01Now PlayingFormer State Department official Heather Conley said given the Iranian regime's brutal suppression of dissent in the past, its unlikely that a citizens movement could take over unless government forces lay down their arms. Conley said that it is unlikely that the situation in Iran will play out in a similar way to Venezuela and that the US choosing a leader could only happen if Iran's current regime saw 'complete collapse.'
President Donald Trump said the US would keep up its military offensive against Iran for as long as it takes, outlining for the first time a set of four objectives he hopes to accomplish toward reducing the threat he said is posed by Tehran.
“We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.,” Trump said at a White House event on Monday about the timeline he foresaw for the campaign. “Whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes.”
The president has faced mounting pressure to better define the goals of his extraordinary military intervention on Iran, after days of sending mixed signals about what he wanted to achieve.
Trump said that the effort, which launched on Saturday, aims to eliminate Iran’s missile capabilities, destroy the country’s navy, cut off its path to a nuclear weapon and ensure that the government “cannot continue to arm fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”
Notably, the president did not mention regime change as one of the campaign’s goals.
Trump’s comments come as the clash entered its third day on Monday, with the fallout from the conflict rippling across the region. The president had previously expressed conflicting timelines — stretching from days to weeks — for how long the conflict would last and contradictory paths for how it could play out, sparking questions about the administration’s endgame and worries of an escalating war.
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