Washington DC [US], March 27 : US President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had informed him that Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was gay.
During an interview with Fox News, when asked if the CIA told the US President if the new Ayatollah was gay, Trump said that, "Well, they did say that, but I don't know if it was only them."
He claimed that a lot of people are saying that and stated that it puts the new supreme leader to a "bad start" in a veiled reference to the laws regarding homosexuality.
"I think a lot of people are saying that. Which puts him off to a bad start in that particular country," Trump stated; however, he did not provide any evidence to support the claim.
In Iran, homosexuality is illegal and is considered a violation of Islamic values, with punishments governed under Sharia-based laws.
According to a prior report by the New York Post, last week, Trump was reportedly surprised after being briefed by US intelligence indicating that Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, may be gay.
Citing sources, The New York Post reported that Trump reacted with visible astonishment and laughed during the intelligence briefing.
Meanwhile, Trump asserted that the United States has "already won the war" against Iran "militarily", claiming that US and Israeli strikes have significantly degraded Tehran's naval and missile capabilities.
During the same interview with Fox News, Trump reiterated his view that Iranian military strength has been "knocked out" amid the West Asia conflict, stating that the naval forces and missile launch capacity of the Islamic Republic have been dramatically reduced during the ongoing conflict.
"We have already won the war, militarily. We have totally won the war," Trump said during the interview with Fox News, asserting that US-led operations had neutralised key elements of Iran's military infrastructure and capabilities.
Trump claimed that the United States had effectively destroyed Iran's naval and air force assets, including dozens of ships, and significantly degraded Iranian missile forces.
"We have already won because we have knocked out their navy; we have knocked out their air force, completely knocked out the air force, just about completely knocked out; we knocked out 154 ships, pretty good ships, in fact, I said, 'why didn't we just take them instead of sinking them we could've used them ourselves, right?' But they like showing how tough they are," the US President said.
"We knocked out their navy, we knocked out their air force, and we knocked out most of their missiles. They are down to about 9%. We knocked out their missile launchers, which is a big deal because without the missile launchers, the missiles don't do very well," he added, highlighting what he described as a near collapse of Iranian military strength.