Trump: I must personally approve new supreme leader

Donald Trump said he must hand-pick Iran’s next leader as he backed a Kurdish militant uprising to help overthrow the regime.

The US president ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei’s son and likely successor, as a “waste of time”.

On Thursday, Mr Trump also said he would be “all for” a Kurdish invasion of western Iran to topple Tehran’s current leadership.

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela”, he told US news site Axios.

After the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, Mr Trump personally chose Ms Rodríguez as interim president after she pledged to work closely with the US.

He added: “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”

Speaking later on Thursday, Mr Trump said that Iran wanted to make a deal but that they were “a little bit late now”.

“We want to fight now more than they do. We’ve had 47 years of horror with this group,” he said, adding: “I’m once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police, to lay down their arms.”

He repeated that the US’s military progress was “ahead of schedule”.

Mr Khamenei, a 56-year-old hardliner who had managed his father’s office for years before his death, is believed to be the front-runner to become the new supreme leader.

He has been seen as one of the top candidates to succeed his father, who was assassinated by an air strike while hiding in his Tehran bunker on Saturday.

Mr Khamenei is known for his close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and his succession would suggest that the guards would retain control of the levers of power in Iran.

The Iranian regime postponed announcing the new supreme leader for several days after Israel bombed a gathering of senior clerics while they voted on a successor.

However, statements by Iranian politicians on Thursday suggested an announcement could be imminent.

Mr Trump also reportedly told Kurdish minority leaders in Iran and Iraq this week that the US would offer “extensive” air cover to support an invasion of western Iran.

The CIA has also given small amounts of arms to Iranian-Kurdish militias sheltering in Iraq, according to The New York Times. The White House said this was “completely false”.

However, asked about the plan on Thursday, Mr Trump said: “I think it’s wonderful they want to do that. I’d be all for it.”

There are roughly 10 million Kurds, a Middle Eastern ethnic minority, across five western Iranian provinces. They are also among the largest minorities in Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Iraqi Kurds have long provided refuge for their Iranian counterparts, on the condition they do not plot against Tehran.

The IRGC vowed to carry out the “complete destruction” of any “separatist activity” in the country after reports of a pro-US Kurd invasion.

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, said the military was “waiting” for US ground forces and warned any invasion would be a “big disaster” for Washington.

US-Israeli strikes continued across Iran on Thursday as the war entered its sixth day, with Gulf nations coming under renewed bombardment by Iran.

Azerbaijan became ‌the latest country drawn into the widening conflict, accusing Tehran of an “act of terror” after an airport was hit with a drone in the south of the country.

In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at a primary school on the first day of the war.

Another 77 have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. Thousands fled southern Beirut on Thursday after Israel warned residents to leave.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]