'The name will remain Khamenei': Hint on successor to Iran's supreme leader after Assembly of Experts votes
The name of Iran's new spiritual leader will also be Khamenei, a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with choosing the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday, reports Reuters.
“The name of Khamenei will continue,” Ayatollah Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said in a video published in Iranian media.
“The vote has been cast and the result will be announced soon,” the Iranian official added, without giving further details. But he thus hinted that the new leader could be Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, whose name had already been floated the other day. However, it could still be someone else with the same name.
The Secretary of the Assembly of Experts, Hosseini Bushehri, will announce the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, another Iranian official, Ahmad Alamolhoda, confirmed.
A middle-ranking but hard-line cleric, Mojtaba Khamenei has close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“He'll have to get an approval from us”
US President Donald Trump said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that Iran's new supreme leader “won't last long” if he doesn't get his approval. “He will have to get an approval from us,” warned the American leader.
Earlier, Trump estimated that he personally must be involved in choosing the future leader of Iran. “I have to be involved in the appointment, just like I was with Delcy (Rodriguez) in Venezuela,” he insisted in an interview on Thursday, referring to the Venezuelan vice president who took over from President Nicolas Maduro after he was captured by US commandos on January 3.
“The son of Khamenei is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” the US president, who wants a pro-American regime in Iran, also claimed in the same interview.
