<\/p>\nListen to this article<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/span>5 mins<\/span><\/p>\n<\/button>info<\/title><path class=\"icon-main-color\" d=\"M12 0a12 12 0 1 0 0 24 12 12 0 0 0 0-24Zm-.226 3.225a2.039 2.039 0 0 1 2.155 1.924v.193a1.998 1.998 0 0 1-2.155 2.149 2.029 2.029 0 0 1-2.146-2.15 2.039 2.039 0 0 1 1.955-2.122h.193l-.002.006Zm3.227 15.525a.75.75 0 0 1-.752.75H9.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.75h.748V12h-.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.751h3a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.752v6.75h.75a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.749L15 18.75Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States President Donald Trump has again promised to exert influence over who is selected as Iran\u2019s next Supreme Leader, saying that, without Washington\u2019s approval, whoever is picked for the role is \u201cnot going to last long\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The statement on Sunday came just hours after a member of Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts said the clerical body had selected the replacement for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the hours after the US and Israel launched the war with Iran on February 28.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 3 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s going to have to get approval from us,\u201d Trump told ABC News, referring to a new supreme leader. \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t get approval from us, he\u2019s not going to last long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump added that he didn\u2019t want future administrations to have \u201cto go back\u201d in the years ahead, an apparent reference to future military action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials in Iran, which has launched retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, have repeatedly rejected the notion of Washington asserting influence over the selection.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi again vowed \u201cwe will allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader,\u201d he said, adding that Iranians had elected the Assembly of Experts, which will select the next supreme leader.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"oman-says-nuclear-talks-were-making-progress\">Oman says nuclear talks were \u2018making progress\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Trump\u2019s comments came as the war entered its ninth day, with the death toll in Iran rising to 1,332, with at least 11 killed across the Gulf, 11 killed in Israel, and six US soldiers killed to date.<\/p>\n<p>The US president has offered shifting justifications for the war, repeatedly pointing to Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions, its ballistic missile programme, as well as the totality of Iran\u2019s actions in the region since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n<p>Critics, including the majority of Democratic US lawmakers, have said Trump has provided scant evidence to prove Iran posed an immediate threat.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Oman Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who had been overseeing indirect US-Iran talks on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, again rejected US officials\u2019 claims that Tehran had not entered into the negotiations in good faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Speaking during a ministerial meeting of the Arab League, Albusaidi said diplomatic initiatives seeking a \u201cfair and honourable solution were making progress\u201d when the US-Israeli attacks began.<\/p>\n<p>He further warned that the region is facing \u201ca dangerous turning point\u201d as fighting escalates.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"short-term-disruption\">\u2018Short-term disruption\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Attacks from both sides appeared to have widened, with the US and Israel for the first time striking oil storage and refining facilities in Tehran, and Iran launching more strikes across the Gulf, including a drone attack that caused material damage to a desalination plant in Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>Both Bloomberg and Axios news have reported that the US and Israel have considered a special ground operation to seize Iran\u2019s enriched uranium, with Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter telling CBS\u2019s Face the Nation news programme that securing the nuclear fuel is \u201con our radar screen and we\u2019re going to take care of it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>For their part, top Trump administration officials spent Sunday seeking to alleviate concerns over the war\u2019s knock-on effects on global oil and gas prices.<\/p>\n<p>Rapidly rising prices represent a particular political vulnerability for Trump as his Republican Party faces legislative midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Fox News, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the administration was responding to what she called a \u201cshort-term disruption\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She said the administration was \u201ctapping into our newfound market in Venezuela\u201d, referring to access US companies had gained to the South American country\u2019s oil industry in the wake of the January 3 US abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n<p>Energy experts have said that rebuilding Venezuela\u2019s oil industry would likely be a multi-year process, and have questioned what immediate impact it could have in offsetting current shortages.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on CBS\u2019s Face the Nation, Energy Secretary Chris Wright also maintained that the war would not drag on and that any economic fallout would be fleeting.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, who came into office vowing to end so-called \u201cendless wars\u201d, has said the operations against Iran could last \u201cfour to five weeks\u201d, but he also said the conflict has \u201cno time limit\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Wright pointed to \u201ca temporary period of elevated energy prices\u201d, but denied there was an energy shortage \u201cat all in the Western Hemisphere\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also underscored that the US has 400 million gallons of oil in the strategic oil reserves and the administration is \u201cmore than happy to use that if it\u2019s needed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you want is emotional reactions and fear that this is a long-term war,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThis is not a long-term war; it\u2019s a temporary movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a05 mins info United States President Donald Trump has again promised to exert influence over who is selected as Iran\u2019s next Supreme Leader, saying that, without Washington\u2019s approval, whoever is picked for the role is \u201cnot going to last long\u201d. The statement on Sunday came just hours after a member of Iran\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}