Trump says Iran’s next supreme leader would need US approval

2026-03-08 - 21:03

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader would not remain in power without approval from Washington, drawing swift rejection from Iranian officials.In an interview with ABC News, Trump said any new Iranian leader would need US sign-off or would not “last long.”“I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again or worse let them have a nuclear weapon,” he said, framing the remarks as part of efforts to prevent future conflict.Asked whether he would approve a figure linked to Iran’s existing leadership, Trump said he would be open to it. “There are numerous people that could qualify,” he added.Iranian officials rejected the comments. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said selecting the country’s next leader was “only the business of the Iranian people” and that Tehran would not allow foreign interference in its internal affairs.Senior cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda said the Assembly of Experts had already voted on a successor to Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes, though the name has not yet been disclosed.Trump previously told Axios he expected to be personally involved in the selection process and dismissed reported frontrunner Mojtaba Khamenei as “a lightweight.”The US president also claimed Iran had planned to “take over the entire Middle East” before the strikes halted those ambitions.Trump said US military operations against Iran were progressing “ahead of schedule both in terms of lethality and time,” while declining to predict how long the war would last.He also did not rule out deploying special forces to seize Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, saying: “Everything is on the table.”Araghchi, speaking to NBC News, confirmed that Iran would continue fighting until a permanent end to hostilities is achieved and denied that Tehran was targeting neighboring Gulf states.“We are not attacking our neighbors. We are attacking Americans who are attacking us,” he said, adding that Iran has no plans to extend the range of its missiles beyond the current limit of about 2,000 kilometers.