Sunday March 8, 2026
www.thenewsdesk.ng
By Idorenyin UMOREN
Private Investigator and Security Evaluator
The United States, US President Donald Trump warned on Sunday, March 8, 2026, that Iran’s next supreme leader would not last long without his approval, as Tehran prepared to reveal the successor to the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Nine days into the war that killed the supreme leader, three members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts said the organisation had chosen a successor, but several hours after those statements no name had been revealed.
Hossein Redaei, a member of the body, said it had gathered the votes for the next supreme leader, but said it had not been deemed appropriate to hold a public and in-person gathering given the wartime conditions.
Some have suggested that Khamenei’s 56-year old son Mojtaba Khamenei would succeed his father.
President Trump had previously demanded a say in the appointment and dismissed the younger Khamenei as an unacceptable “lightweight”.
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” President Trump told ABC News on Sunday, March 8, 2026, referring to Iran’s next leader. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
But Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said earlier in the day that the decision was Iran’s alone, adding it would “allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs”.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Araghchi went on to demand that Trump “apologise to people of the region” for the spiralling war.
The younger Khamenei is regarded as a conservative figure, notably because of his ties to the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic republic’s military.
Israel’s military has warned any successor that “we will not hesitate to target you”.
