The killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Feb. 28 U.S.-Israeli strikes has opened a volatile succession struggle in Tehran, and President Donald Trump is making clear that Washington intends to shape the outcome. In an interview published Thursday with the news site Axios, Trump declared that he must have a role in selecting Iran’s next leader, and that he will not accept Khamenei’s son inheriting the position.
Trump told Axios on March 5 that he refuses to accept Mojtaba Khamenei, the surviving son of the slain supreme leader, as Iran’s next ruler. “I cannot accept Khamenei’s son taking over,” Trump said. “We want someone who can bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
Trump compared the situation to the recent U.S.-backed leadership transition in Venezuela, where Washington helped install a successor to the ousted Nicolas Maduro on its own terms. “I have to be involved in this appointment, just like the situation with Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela,” Trump said, referring to the former Maduro deputy who assumed power after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife in January.
In that case, Trump agreed to work with Rodriguez only on the condition that her government follow Washington’s policy direction, particularly on developing Venezuela’s oil resources. The implication for Iran was unmistakable: any new leadership in Tehran would need American approval.
The airstrike that killed Ali Khamenei and dozens of senior officials
On Feb. 28, the United States and Israel launched a massive military operation against Tehran codenamed “Epic Fury.” A senior Israeli national security official told Fox News that approximately 40 senior Iranian officials were killed, making it one of the largest targeted leadership strikes in modern warfare.
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The following day, the Iranian government confirmed that Khamenei, 86, had been killed in the U.S.-Israeli assault. Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had jointly announced the strikes on Feb. 28, with one explicit objective being regime change in Iran.
In the days since, the U.S. and Israel have continued escalating. The Pentagon released footage showing the destruction of multiple land and sea targets, including more than 20 Iranian warships. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said additional bombers and fighter jets had arrived in the Middle East, and that the U.S. expected to achieve full control of Iranian airspace within a week.
Khamenei’s son survived the strike and is being pushed as successor
Iranian sources told Reuters on March 5 that Mojtaba Khamenei survived the initial wave of airstrikes. According to the New York Post, citing Iranian opposition media, Mojtaba is being heavily promoted as the frontrunner to succeed his father.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the 88-member clerical body responsible for selecting the supreme leader, is expected to make a final decision on the succession as early as next week. The regime’s remaining hardliners are reportedly rallying behind Mojtaba, even as at least 49 core members of the Iranian leadership were killed in the Feb. 28 strikes.
Mojtaba never held a formal senior government position during his father’s decades in power, which began in the 1980s. He has long been regarded, however, as a behind-the-scenes operator who worked to consolidate his family’s grip on the repressive apparatus of the Islamic Republic.
Israel’s military and intelligence services have reportedly received orders to eliminate Mojtaba before he can formally assume supreme authority. A senior Israeli defense official, speaking anonymously to media, delivered a blunt warning: “If you think we will sit by while the tyrant’s son picks up the scepter and continues funding terrorism against us, you are gravely mistaken. Mojtaba Khamenei is currently number one on our target list. If he tries to appear publicly to take the oath of office, he will quickly join his father.”
Intelligence reports indicate that Mojtaba has abandoned his residence in northern Tehran and gone underground, sheltering in bunkers to evade the continuing U.S.-Israeli campaign.
The assembly of experts faces a deadline with no good options
The Assembly of Experts is expected to finalize Iran’s next supreme leader within days. The body faces an extraordinary set of constraints: its ranks have been decimated by the strikes, the candidate most likely to consolidate hardliner support is being actively hunted by Israeli intelligence, and the president of the United States has publicly declared that Washington will exercise a veto over the outcome.