President Trump has insisted that he “has to be involved” in the process to select Iran’s next supreme leader.
The previous incumbent, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday in one of the first actions of Israel’s joint military operation against the Islamic Republic.
Comparing the military operation against Iran to Washington’s effective takeover of Venezuela in January – which saw President Nicolás Maduro captured by US forces and Trump saying his administration would “run” the country through Vice President Delcy Rodriguez – he told Axios on Thursday: “I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela.”
He also dismissed reports that Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, had been selected as his father’s successor, adding: “They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight.
"Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
Mojtaba was previously seen as heir apparent to Khamenei and is closely affiliated with the influential Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
However, the late ayatollah reportedly asked for his son to be removed from contention for the leadership on the grounds that it should not be a hereditary position, which he felt would be too similar to the monarchy overthrown by the Islamic regime in 1979.
In a separate interview with Politico, Trump said: “The reason the father wouldn’t give it to the son is they say he’s incompetent.
"I’m going to have a big impact [over Iran’s future leadership], or they’re not going to have any settlement, because we’re not going to have to go do this again.
"We’ll work with the people and the regime to make sure that somebody gets there that can nicely build Iran but without nuclear weapons.”
Trump has previously spoken openly about regime change as a goal for the US military operation, including calling on the Iranian people to seize their “hour of freedom” and overthrow the regime.
And, in an interview with Reuters, he backed the prospect of an offensive by Iranian Kurdish militias currently exiled in Iraq.
"I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” he said.
Washington has reportedly offered to provide “extensive” air cover for such an offensive, with the CIA in “active talks” with the Kurds regarding a US-backed regime change.
One prospect is for the Kurds to seize parts of western Iran in order to provide a buffer between the Islamic Republic and Israel, while another is for them to pin down Iranian security forces, thereby allowing ordinary Iranians to rise up against their government without fear of the deadly repression that met anti-regime protests earlier this year and left several thousand people dead.
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