Donald Trump has demanded the final sign-off on Iran‘s new leader after he chose Venezuela’s next president.
They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela,’ Trump told Axios, responding to reports the slain ayatollah’s son Mojtaba is the likely successor.
‘[Ali] Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,’ Trump said, adding that the US would be back in a war within five years if the heir accedes as Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Mojtaba has survived US-Israeli airstrikes that wiped out his father and dozens of the Islamic regime’s top brass.
He is a hardliner with close ties to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards paramilitary force and one of the most influential figures in the clerical establishment.
Iran has not yet announced a new leader but any involvement by the US would be considered anathema to the majority of Iran’s Shiite Muslims.
The assassinated ayatollah’s status was akin to the Pope and the religious and ideological concerns are far more complex than the replacement of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
Maduro’s seizure went off without a hitch, no US troops were killed, appearing to involve a level of pre-arrangement with factions within his Chavista regime.
Rodriguez has spoken with Trump and agreed to send millions of barrels of oil to America. There are no such signs of any overtures from Iran which maintains a relentless bombing campaign against Israel, Arab states and US bases in the region.
President Donald Trump during a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday
