U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he intends to have direct influence over who leads Iran next, arguing that Washington should not be sidelined in any leadership transition and pointing to his approach toward Venezuela after Nicolás Maduro as a model.
"I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy (Rodriguez) in Venezuela," Trump told Axios, dismissing Mojtaba Khamenei – the son of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a reported frontrunner to succeed him – as "a lightweight."
Trump made clear he would not accept a successor who continued the late supreme leader's policies, warning that this would drag the U.S. back to war "in five years." "We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran," he said in a phone interview.
Iran has not yet announced a new supreme leader since Khamenei, alongside dozens of other senior Iranian officials, was killed after the launch of joint U.S.-Israeli joint attacks on Saturday.
Though he holds no formal public office, Mojtaba Khamenei is widely regarded as the most influential of Khamenei's children and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2019. He has also been linked to the Basij force used to suppress protests after Iran's disputed 2009 election.
Under Iran's Constitution, the 88-member Assembly of Experts is responsible for selecting a successor, while a temporary council assumes leadership duties in the interim.
