Donald Trump warns Irans new Supreme Leader | Political News
Donald Trump has despatched a clear message to Iran’s next chief (Image: Getty)
Donald Trump has warned Iran that their next Supreme Leader will only be in charge for a short spell if he doesn’t approve of him.
The president continued his fierce rhetoric when requested about news of a succession plan being underway in Tehran.
“The most suitable candidate, approved by the majority of the Assembly of Experts, has been determined,” Mohsen Heydari, a member of the choice physique, said Sunday in a assertion launched to local press.
Reacting to the method, Trump told ABC: “He’s going to have to get approval from us. If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”
He added: “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.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that no one is aware of who the new chief might be.
“There are lots of rumors around, but we have to wait for the Assembly of Experts to convene and vote for the new Supreme Leader,” Araghchi said.
“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs. This is up to the Iranian people. It is only the business of the Iranian people,” Araghchi said about Trump’s assertion.
The contours of a complex succession process began to take shape the morning after Khamenei’s killing in an airstrike campaign by the United States and Israel.
Earlier on Sunday, GWN reported that the clerical body has reached a majority consensus, according to Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri. However, the Mehr news agency quoted him as saying “some obstacles” still needed to be resolved regarding the process.
Temporary leadership council
As outlined in its constitution, Iran on Sunday formed a council to assume leadership duties and govern the country.
The council is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.
Iran’s reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, are its members who will step in and “temporarily assume all the duties of leadership.”
Top contenders who could replace Khamenei
Hassan Rouhani – Former Iranian President
Relative moderate who reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped during his first term.
Hassan Khomeini – Grandson of the founder of Islamic Republic
Relative moderate who has supported more engagement with the West, but has never held government office.
Mojtaba Khamenei – Son of Khamenei
Mid-level Shiite cleric widely considered potential successor to Khamenei. He has strong ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held political office.
Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi – Senior Shiite cleric
Handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council and was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He has support of traditional clerics.
Ayatollah Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri – Head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom
Runs the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran. Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hardliners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.
Panel of clerics
Though the leadership council will govern in the interim, an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts “must, as soon as possible” pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.
The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.
That body is known for disqualifying candidates in various elections in Iran and the Assembly of Experts is no different. The Guardian Council barred former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from election for the Assembly of Experts in March 2024.
Khamenei’s son
Clerical deliberations about succession and machinations over it take place far from the public eye, making it hard to gauge who may be a top contender.
Previously, it was thought that Khamenei’s protege, hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, may try to take the mantle. However, he was killed in a May 2024 helicopter crash.
That has left one of Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba, a 56-year-old Shiite cleric, as a potential candidate, though he has never held authorities workplace.
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