Trump: Next Iranian supreme leader ‘not going to last long’ without US approval
US president says he's open to new leadership from within current regime; Iranian FM says Tehran won't surrender or negotiate a truce, will 'continue to resist as long as it takes'
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s next leader “is not going to last long” without Washington’s approval, as the Islamic Republic prepared for the succession of its slain supreme leader.
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump told ABC News, a week after Israel killed Ali Khamenei in the opening strikes of the ongoing war with the US against the regime.
“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,” Trump said.
“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,” he added.
The US president has said repeatedly in recent days that he expects to play a major role in the selection of Iran’s next leadership, while declining to clarify what form that leadership will take.
Asked by NBC whether he would approve of new leadership from within the current regime, Trump said: “I would, in order to choose a good leader, I would, yeah, I would. There are numerous people who could qualify.”
Though the Islamic Republic is yet to publicly name a successor to its slain supreme leader, reports have said that the regime’s so-called Assembly of Experts was likely to elect Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the assassinated ayatollah.
On Sunday, Hosseinali Eshkevari, who sits on the assembly, said that a new leader has already been selected and will soon be announced by officials, adding that “the name of Khamenei will continue.”
Trump has dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as “unacceptable” and a “lightweight,” and said he was previously not considered for the role because he was thought “incompetent.”
Trump made similarly disparaging remarks on Sunday about Ali Larijani, a top Iranian official who serves as secretary of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council.
On Saturday, Larijani posted on X, “We will relentlessly avenge the blood of our Leader and our people. Trump must pay and will pay.”
“I have no idea what he’s talking about, who he is. I couldn’t care less,” Trump told CBS News. He added that Larijani has “already been defeated.”
The US administration has given varying justifications for the war in Iran, emphasizing long-term threats to the US posed by Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while also condemning Tehran’s deadly crackdown on mass anti-government protests earlier this year, and speaking positively about the prospect of toppling the regime altogether.
On Friday, Trump declared on social media: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
He said that after “the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s),” the US would work to “bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better and stronger than ever before.”
Iranian FM: ‘No surrender,’ we will ‘continue to resist’
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday said Tehran will “allow nobody to interfere with our domestic affairs,” and that the regime will provide “no surrender,” but rather “continue to resist as long as it takes.”
Araghchi said that not only will Iran not surrender, but it is not open to a ceasefire, either, the way it was during the 12-day war in June 2025 that ended with a US-brokered truce.
“Last time, we accepted the ceasefire, but this time is quite different,” Araghchi told NBC’s Meet the Press. “After attacking a second time in a year, they want to ask for a ceasefire again? It doesn’t work like this. There should be a permanent end to the war. Unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting.”
Araghchi also rejected the assertion that Iran was attacking its neighbors, and said the regime was only targeting American forces who happened to be stationed within the territory of those countries.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday, “I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf.”
Araghchi said this was merely an apology to “the peoples of the region for the inconveniences they have faced because of this aggression by the United States and retaliation by us.”
“As a matter of fact, it is the president of the United States who should apologize,” the diplomat added.