Conservative political pundit Bill O’Reilly said Iran’s Islamic Republic is on “shaky, shaky land” after the U.S. airstrikes on the country’s nuclear facilities, suggesting the Iranian military could ultimately help overthrow Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his allied mullahs.
“These people are desperate, these mullahs and their crew, because they’ll be charged with war crimes, you got to understand, and there’s nowhere for them to run,” O’Reilly said Monday evening on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “These people are fighting for their lives.”
Khamenei reportedly went into hiding during this month’s Israel-Iran conflict, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly entertained suggestions he should be assassinated and opponents called for a democratic uprising in Tehran.
Iran and Israel have bombarded each other for nearly two weeks, after Israel launched a surprise attack on Tehran’s military and nuclear sites on June 12.
President Trump lashed out at Israel and Iran on Tuesday, as the Middle East rivals continued their military strikes despite Trump’s ceasefire announcement on Monday.
“We basically, we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” Trump told reporters at the White House ahead of his departure to The Hague for a NATO Summit.
Iranian leaders said attacks on Israel were paused Monday but denied agreeing to a full ceasefire.
“As Iran has repeatedly made clear: Israel launched war on Iran, not the other way around,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post Monday night. “As of now, there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations.”
O’Reilly, who has been in contact with Trump during the Iran-Israel conflict, accused Tehran’s leaders of misleading the Iranian people about the country’s viability in the fight out of self interest.
“They’re going to put off a front to the Persian people,” he told Vittert. “They say, ‘Hey, no, you know, we’re still in the game, and we’re not being humiliated’ when there couldn’t have been more humiliation,” the former Fox News host said.
