Israel and Iran launch new strikes in expanding Middle East war

Despite administration officials’ repeated insistence that regime change is “not the objective” in Iran, President Trump said Wednesday that he must “be involved in the appointment” of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s successor and dismissed Khamenei’s son as an “unacceptable” pick.

“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.

The president said he won’t accept any new Iranian leader who continues Khamenei’s policies because it would force the U.S. to attack again “in five years.”

“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me,” Trump said. “We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”

On Tuesday, Trump admitted that he doesn’t know who could succeed the slain Khamenei because so many key Iranian figures have already been killed in the ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump said. “Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

Iran’s Assembly of Experts — an elected body of 88 senior clerics tasked with naming Khamenei’s successor — has been holding virtual meetings this week after U.S.-Israeli strikes hit its compound in Tehran on Monday and Tuesday, according to the country’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

The New York Times reported late Tuesday that the slain leader’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has “emerged as the clear front-runner,” citing three Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations.

Mojatba Khamenei is known for his close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His selection would signal that the “much more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime … is now in charge,” Vali Nasr, an expert on Iran and Shia Islam at Johns Hopkins University, told the Times.