Trump wants to be personally involved in choosing the next leader of Iran. “Just like in Venezuela”
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he must be personally involved in choosing Iran's next leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in airstrikes launched by the United States and Israel, Reuters reports.
“The son of Khamenei is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said in an interview with the American publication Axios.
“I have to be involved in the appointment, just like Delcy (Rodriguez) was in Venezuela,” he insisted, referring to Venezuela's current leader, who took over after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured by a US commando on January 3.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's former supreme leader, survived the US-Israeli airstrikes in which his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on Saturday, Iranian sources told Reuters.
A mid-ranking cleric, Mojtaba Khamenei is a hardliner with close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is still seen as a possible successor to his father.
Iran has yet to announce a new supreme leader.
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For several days, the Iranian regime has been postponing the announcement of the new supreme leader, but the statements of Iranian politicians on Thursday suggest that the announcement could be imminent, writes News.ro. But Trump refuses to accept a new Iranian leader who would continue Khamenei's policies, which, according to him, would force the US to re-enter the war “within five years”.
Trump's comments represent an extraordinary assertion of American power over Iran's political future, further clouding the goals of the massive military campaign he launched on Saturday, Axios reports.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other US officials have denied that the goal of the operation is “regime change”, focusing instead on degrading Iran's missile capabilities, nuclear program and navy.
Asked on Tuesday who might replace Khamenei, Trump told reporters at the White House: “Most of the people I had in mind are dead.”
Trump compared the succession in Iran to his intervention in Venezuela, where Vice President Delcy Rodriguez took power after US forces captured President Nicolás Maduro in January.
In his State of the Nation address, Trump called Venezuela “our new friend and partner” and said the US had received more than 80 million barrels of oil since the operation to capture Maduro.
Trump praised Rodriguez on Wednesday, saying “the oil is starting to flow,” after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Caracas and Rodriguez announced plans to reform the country's mining laws.
