listen to this article5 minutes
information
US President Donald Trump has renewed his commitment to influence who is chosen to be Iran’s next supreme leader, saying that without Washington’s approval, whoever is chosen for the role “won’t last very long.”
Sunday’s statement came just hours after members of the Iranian Council of Experts announced that the cleric had chosen the successor to Khamenei, who was killed on February 28, hours after the United States and Israel launched a war with Iran.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“He’s going to have to get our approval,” Trump told ABC News of the new supreme leader. “If you don’t get approval from us, it won’t last long.”
President Trump added that he does not want future administrations to “backtrack” in the coming years, an apparent reference to future military action.
“We don’t want people to go back in five years and do the same thing again, or worse, have nuclear weapons,” he said.
Iranian officials, who have launched retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, have repeatedly rejected the idea that the United States would claim influence over the selection.
Early Sunday morning, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi vowed again: “We will not allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs.”
“It is up to the Iranian people to choose a new leader,” he said, adding that the Iranian people had elected a council of experts to choose the next supreme leader.
Oman says nuclear talks are ‘making progress’
Trump’s comments came as the war enters its ninth day and the death toll in Iran has risen to 1,332, with at least 11 deaths across the Gulf, 11 in Israel and six U.S. soldiers so far.
U.S. presidents have offered varying justifications for the war, repeatedly pointing to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile program, and the totality of Iran’s actions in the region since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Critics, including a majority of U.S. Democrats, say Trump has little evidence to prove Iran is an imminent threat.
On Sunday, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who oversaw indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran over Iran’s nuclear program, again denied claims by U.S. officials that Iran was not participating in negotiations in good faith.
Al-Busaidi told an Arab League ministerial meeting that at the time the U.S. and Israeli attacks began, “diplomatic efforts to find a just and honorable solution were progressing.”
He also warned that the region was facing a “dangerous tipping point” as fighting intensified.
“Short-term disruption”
Attacks from both sides appear to have escalated, with the United States and Israel making their first attack on an oil storage and refining facility in Tehran, and Iran launching further attacks across the Gulf, including a drone strike that damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain.
Both Bloomberg and Axios News reported that the United States and Israel were considering a special ground operation to seize Iran’s enriched uranium, and Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Echiel Reiter, told CBS’s Face the Nation news program that securing nuclear fuel was “on our radar screen and we will respond.”
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials on Sunday sought to allay concerns that the war would spill over into global oil and gas prices.
The sharp rise in prices is particularly politically vulnerable for President Trump’s Republican Party as it prepares for midterm elections in November.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told Fox News that the administration was responding to what she called a “short-term disruption.”
He said the regime was “exploiting a new-found market in Venezuela,” noting that U.S. companies gained access to the South American country’s oil industry following the U.S. abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3.
Energy experts say rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry is likely to take years and question what immediate impact can be made to make up for the current supply shortfall.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright also insisted on CBS’ Face the Nation that the war would not last long and any economic impact would be temporary.
President Trump, who took office vowing to end so-called “endless wars,” said the operation against Iran could last “four to five weeks,” but said there was “no end date” to the conflict.
Wright pointed to a “temporary spike in energy prices,” but denied there was an energy shortage “at all in the Western Hemisphere.”
He also stressed that the United States has 400 million gallons of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and that his administration is “willing to use it if necessary.”
“What you want is an emotional response and a fear that this is going to be a long game,” Wright said. “This is a temporary movement, not a long-term war.”
