President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s new leader is ‘not going to last long’ without U.S. approval as Operation Epic Fury continues into its second week.
‘He’s going to have to get approval from us,’ Trump told ABC News in an interview. ‘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.’
‘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,’ the president continued.
Trump’s comments come after Iranian state media reported that a majority consensus had been reached on a new supreme leader following the Feb. 28 assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri, who serves on Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body tasked with selecting the supreme leader, did not offer any names but acknowledged to the Mehr News Agency that there are still ‘some obstacles.’
ABC News reported that Trump said it’s possible he would be in favor of someone with ties to the old regime.
‘I would, in order to choose a good leader I would, yeah, I would. There are numerous people that could qualify,’ he said.
The Associated Press reported that several figures are being viewed as potential successors to Iran’s supreme leadership. They include:
Mojtaba Khamenei — Son of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Ali Reza Arafi — Senior Shiite cleric
Hassan Rouhani — Former president of Iran
Hassan Khomeini — Grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic
Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri — Head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom