US President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader would not last long without his approval, as Tehran prepared to unveil the replacement to the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Nine days after US-Israeli strikes on Khamenei’s compound killed him and drove the Middle East into war, Iran’s Assembly of Experts convened quietly to choose their future leader, according to members of the body.
The clerics did not reveal who had been chosen, just stating that a name would be announced shortly. Some predicted that Khamenei’s 56-year-old son Mojtaba Khamenei would succeed his father.
Trump had earlier requested a say in the choice, dismissing the younger Khamenei as an undesirable “lightweight.”
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump told ABC News on Sunday, referring to Iran’s next leader. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
However, Tehran’s top diplomat stated earlier in the day that the decision was solely Iran’s, adding that it would “allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs”.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi demanded on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump “apologise to the people of the region” for the escalating conflict.
The younger Khamenei is seen as a conservative character, owing to his ties to the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic republic’s military doctrinal arm.
Israel’s military has warned any successor that “we will not hesitate to target you.”
