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President Donald Trump warned Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader would struggle to remain in power without U.S. approval as Iran announced Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, as its next ruler.
Ali Khamenei was recently killed during U.S. and Israeli strikes on his compound, an event that escalated the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
President Trump said the United States would closely watch the decision ahead of Iran’s announcement
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” President Trump said, referring to Iran’s next leader. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, rejected the suggestion that outside powers would influence the decision.
“We will allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs,” Araghchi said, while also calling on President Trump to apologize to people in the region for the expanding war.
The conflict has continued to intensify. Israeli forces launched overnight strikes on fuel facilities near Tehran, while Iranian missile attacks triggered explosions over Tel Aviv, injuring several people.
President Trump previously said the former ruler’s son is not acceptable for the job.
“They are wasting their time,” he told the outlet. “Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela.”
He added, “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me,” President Trump told Axios. “We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it still has sufficient supplies to continue missile and drone attacks across the Middle East for months if necessary. Israeli officials warned that Iran’s next supreme leader could also become a military target if hostilities continue.
The operation was launched based on assessments that Iran may have posed an imminent threat to the United States, RSBN previously reported.
“You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” the president explained on Tuesday. “If we didn’t do, and we have great negotiators, great people, who do this very successfully…based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen.”
