‘Next Iran supreme leader won’t last long without my approval,’ says Trump
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Next Iran supreme leader won’t last long without my approval,’ says Trump")
US President Donald Trump Photograph: (AFP)
A senior Trump administration official told reporters that Iran has enriched enough uranium to get to weapons-grade material in 10 days or less. Much of the uranium is believed to be held at the sites bombed during Operation Midnight Hammer—Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the next supreme leader of Iran “is not going to last long” if Tehran does not get his approval first. “He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump told ABC News.
“If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long,” Trump said, adding, “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’s comments came as the Iranian clerical body responsible for choosing the successor to slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was reported to have selected a nominee and had to announce the name.
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Trump further 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.”
When asked if he would be willing to approve someone with ties to the old regime, Trump replied, “I would, in order to choose a good leader, I would, yeah, I would. There are numerous people that could qualify.”
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Seeming to offer yet another justification for this war, Trump said Iran was planning to take over the entire Middle East, and suggested he stopped them from doing so.
“They are a paper tiger. They weren’t a paper tiger a week ago, I’ll tell you. And they were going to attack,” he said. “Their plan was to attack the entire Middle East, to take over the entire Middle East.”
The US president also did not rule out sending in special forces to seize Iran’s enriched uranium, saying, “Everything is on the table. Everything.”
A senior Trump administration official told reporters last week that Iran has enriched enough uranium to get to weapons-grade material in 10 days or less.
Much of the uranium is believed to be held at the sites bombed during Operation Midnight Hammer—Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow.
“In theory, if we had physical control of that territory, if we had physical control of those places where it’s located, we could send our people in and dilute it,” the official said.
Trump said he wouldn’t predict how long the war would last when pressed on a timeline.
“I don’t know. I never predict. All I can say is we are ahead of schedule both in terms of lethality and in terms of time,” he said.
Iran was preparing to reveal its new supreme leader on Sunday.
“The vote to appoint the leader has taken place, and the leader has been chosen,” said Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, as quoted by Iran’s Mehr news agency.
Alamolhoda said the secretariat of the body would announce the name later. Other assembly members confirmed a decision was made, with one suggesting the son of the late leader would take the post.
