TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his desire to influence the selection process for Iran’s new Supreme Leader following the death of Ayatollah Khamenei. He asserted that any individual chosen for the role without Washington’s approval will not last long.
Trump’s remarks were made on Sunday, March 8, 2026, just hours before Iranian state media reported that the Assembly of Experts had elected Mojtaba Khamenei as the new top leader. Mojtaba is the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched military operations against Iran on February 28.
While Trump did not offer an immediate response to the selection of Khamenei’s son, he had already insisted that Iran's new leadership must be approved by the U.S.
Iran has firmly denied that its decision-making process was influenced by Trump.
"He’s going to have to get approval from us," Trump told ABC News, as quoted by Al Jazeera. Trump referred to the potential new leader. "If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long."
Trump added that he did not want the future government to return to the past. "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 said.
Officials in Iran, who have launched retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, have repeatedly rejected the notion that Washington is using influence in the selection process.
Earlier on Sunday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran will not let anyone interfere in its domestic affairs. "This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader," he said. Araghchi added that the Iranian people elected the Assembly of Experts, the body that selects the supreme leader.
The announcement of Mojtaba Khamenei's election came shortly after the Pentagon confirmed that a seventh US soldier had died since the war began. In a statement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the unidentified soldier was injured "at the scene of an attack on US troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 1," and died on Saturday.
The death toll in Iran has risen to 1,332, with at least 11 people killed across the Gulf region and 11 others killed in Israel.
Read: Iran Strikes Israel as Mojtaba Khamenei Takes Power
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