US President Donald Trump has said the next Iranian supreme leader “is not going to last long” if the Middle East country does not get America’s approval first.
Trump spoke in an interview with ABC News on Sunday hours before the Islamic Republic namedba successor to Ali Khamenei, who was killed last Saturday in US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump said.
“If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.
“I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again or worse let them have a nuclear weapon.”
The Iranian council responsible for choosing the supreme leader is reported to have voted and would soon announce a name.
When asked if he would be willing to approve someone with ties to the old regime, Trump replied, “I would, in order to choose a good leader, I would, yeah, I would. There are numerous people that could qualify”.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to be involved in the selection of Iran’s next leader.
But Iranian officials have dismissed the possibility.
Last week, Mahdavi Raja, Iranian ambassador to Nigeria, called Trump’s ambition a “joke”.
Late Ali Khamenei’s second son appointed new supreme leader
Meanwhile, the second son of the late Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been appointed as Iran’s new supreme leader, according to state media reports.
The 56-year-old was confirmed as his father’s successor on Sunday following a vote by the Assembly of Experts, the group of clerics responsible for selecting the country’s highest authority.
In recent years, Khamenei—considered close to his late father—had increasingly been viewed as a possible successor, although he had never publicly addressed the issue.
Ahead of the announcement, Hossein Ali Eshkevari, a member of the Assembly of Experts, revealed that the body had completed its vote and selected a candidate.
“The name of Khamenei will continue,” Eshkevari said in a video published by Iranian media.
“The vote has been cast and will be announced soon.”
In the Iran, the supreme leader holds ultimate authority over all state matters within the Islamic Republic of Iran, ranking above the president.
