President Donald Trump told multiple news outlets on Thursday that the United States must participate in the process to choose the next leader of Iran to prevent a repeat of the current war.
Trump expressed disapproval of the rumors that the “Assembly of Experts,” a panel of top officials in Iran tasked with finding the next “supreme leader,” has potentially chosen Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to succeed him, referring to the son as a “lightweight.”
The president launched Operation Epic Fury on Saturday, a military plan intended to degrade Iran’s ability to pose a threat to America and Israel. Iran is the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, responsible for maintaining a web of terrorist networks around the world including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Shiite militias of Iraq, and others. The elder Khamenei was eliminated in strikes on Iran this weekend; President Trump announced his death less than 24 hours after Operation Epic Fury began.
Speaking with Reuters on Thursday, Trump said America is seeking a role in ensuring that the next leadership in Iran is someone who does not pose a threat to America in order to prevent future war.
“We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future, so we don’t have to go back every five years and do this again and again,” he said. “We want somebody that’s going to be great for the people, great for the country.”
Reuters described Trump as saying that the rise of the younger Khamenei was “unlikely” and emphasizing, “we’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran. We’re going to have to choose that person.” He added that any potential candidates, including Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah of the country decades ago, were “in the mix” for leadership.
In separate remarks to the Washington, DC, website Axios, Trump described the Assembly of Experts as “wasting their time” if they were seriously considering Khamenei.
“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodríguez] in Venezuela,” he explained. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
Delcy Rodríguez is a hardline communist who has served in multiple positions in socialist Venezuela, including oil minister, foreign minister, and, most recently, vice president. Rodríguez took over the country on January 3, when the United States arrested now-deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on narco-terrorism charges. Rodríguez has shown herself more amenable to working with the United States and Trump and welcomed the American Secretary of the Interior to Caracas this week.
Trump also spoke to NBC News, declaring that America wants “to go in and clean out everything,” meaning to remove the malignant jihadist “Islamic revolution” as a leadership structure in Iran.
“We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period,” he explained. “We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job.”
On Friday morning, Trump declared in a message on Truth Social that he would accept only “unconditional surrender” from what is left of the Iranian regime.
“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” he wrote. “After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE.”
At press time, it is not entirely clear who is governing Iran. Khamenei was the “supreme leader” — the ultimate decision-making authority in the country. Iran has a president, Masoud Pezeshkian, but that role has traditionally served as a figurehead to advance the agenda of the supreme leader. Pezehskian has largely avoided the spotlight since “Operation Epic Fury” began, emerging on Friday with a conciliatory tone.
“We are committed to lasting peace in the region,” he claimed, “yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation’s dignity & sovereignty.”
Iran’s response to Operation Epic Fury has primarily been a flurry of drone and missile attacks against its neighbors. On Saturday alone, Iran bombed eight of its neighbors: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Israel. Iran has since expanded attacks to include Azerbaijan, confusing and outraging the government there.
Iranian officials also announced that they would bar traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, significantly damaging international trade, including for some of its closest allies. The Communist Party of China, in particular, urged Iran to change its mind and allow oil to traffic to China, a nation with one of the world’s largest oil demands and no significant domestic reserves.
On Wednesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and the most powerful wing of the Iranian armed forces — announced that it would open the Strait, but only to its friendly allies, including China.
“We had previously said that, based on international laws and resolutions, in times of war, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have the right to control the passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” the IRGC said in a statement. Iran has no such right under any interpretation of “international law.”
