Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, mocked the United States on Friday following Tehran’s claim that it had shot down two US fighter jets and a helicopter.
Posting on X, Ghalibaf described the joint US-Israeli operation as a “no-strategy war.” He wrote: “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please? Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses’.”
After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from “regime change” to “Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?🥺”
Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) April 3, 2026
Earlier on Friday, Iran asserted that it had downed two US military aircraft—the F-15 and A-10—and targeted two Black Hawk helicopters. The US confirmed the loss of an F-15E over Iranian territory.
The incident follows Pentagon claims that Iran’s air defences had been so weakened that American aircraft could operate over the country without interference, amid former President Donald Trump’s threats to reduce Iran “to the stone age where it belongs.”
Trump’s Longstanding Push For Regime Change
On 1 April, Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, describing Iran’s “new regime president” as “much less radicalised and far more intelligent than his predecessors.” Yet, during a national address on Thursday, he stated that regime change was not the stated aim of the conflict, although leadership shifts had already occurred.
“Regime change was not our goal… but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths,” he said, branding Iran’s Islamic regime “thuggish and murderous,” citing a recent crackdown on protests that killed thousands.
“Leaders like that cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon,” he added. “From the very first day I announced my campaign, I vowed never to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This fanatical regime has been chanting ‘Death to America’ for 47 years — and it should have been dealt with long before I arrived in office.”
Trump emphasised that he initially pursued diplomacy: “Yet the regime continued its relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.”
On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also the president’s national security adviser, expressed caution in an interview with ABC News over whether Iran had truly changed.
“The people who lead them, this clerical regime, that is the problem,” he said. “And if there are new people in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the world. But we must also be prepared for the possibility — maybe even the probability — that this is not the case.”
Later, speaking to Al Jazeera, Rubio stressed that neutralising Iran’s weapons capability remained crucial.
“I think the best way to stability, given those in charge in Iran, is to destroy Iran’s future ability to launch missiles and drones against infrastructure and civilian populations,” he said, adding that “our objectives from the very beginning had nothing to do with the leadership.”
Trump And The Strikes On Iran
Trump initiated military action on 28 February in coordination with Israel, targeting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and other senior officials. He subsequently called for an Iranian uprising, which has yet to materialise, though he claims success in effecting regime change.
“We’ve had regime change already because one regime was decimated, destroyed. They’re all dead,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime… we’re dealing with different people than anyone has dealt with before. It’s a whole different group. I would consider that regime change.”
He continued: “Regime change is an imperative, but I think we have it automatically.” On Tuesday, he reiterated that he had “knocked out” two Iranian regimes consecutively.
