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Donald Trump says he is \u201cnot happy\u201d with the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran\u2019s new supreme leader.<\/p>\n
The United States president had warned repeatedly against electing the son of assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to lead the country as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran intensified.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going through this to end up with another Khamenei. I want to be involved in the selection,\u201d Trump told Time magazine on Friday.<\/p>\n Two days later, Iran\u2019s Assembly of Experts did exactly that \u2013 it replaced the slain Khamenei with his 56-year-old son.<\/p>\n The decision was a show of defiance against the US president, who had been stressing for days that Iran would follow the path of Venezuela in selecting a leader willing to answer Washington\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they made a big mistake,\u201d Trump said on Monday of Khamenei\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n He also suggested that the new supreme leader may be targeted and killed like his father.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to last. I think they made a mistake,\u201d the US president said.<\/p>\n In an interview with the New York Post earlier, Trump declined to provide details about his plans for dealing with the new Iranian leader.<\/p>\n \u201cNot going to tell you. I\u2019m not happy with him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, also acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was \u201cnot the change\u201d the US was looking for.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe it\u2019s just a matter of time before he meets the same fate as that of his father \u2014 one of the most evil men on the planet,\u201d Graham said on X.<\/p>\n Mark Levin, a pro-Israel commentator close to Trump, who called for killing the elder Khamenei for weeks prior to the war, was quick to shift his messaging after Mojtaba was selected as his father\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n \u201cGet the boy Khamenei!\u201d Levin wrote in a social media post on Monday.<\/p>\n The US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, killing Khamenei and several top officials in the opening strikes, which were followed by thousands of attacks that devastated the country and claimed the lives of more than 1,250 people.<\/p>\n Iran responded with hundreds of missiles and drone launches against Israel and US military assets across the Middle East.<\/p>\n Iranian attacks have also hit energy installations and civilian targets in the Gulf region and largely succeeded in closing down the Hormuz Strait \u2013 a major shipping lane for the oil trade.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Calls for killing the new Iranian leader<\/h2>\n