Trump says he needs to be involved in selecting Iran’s next leader, Axios reports

March 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios on Thursday that he should be personally involved in selecting Iran’s next leader.

“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said in an interview with Axios.

“I need to be involved in the appointment like with Delcy (Rodriguez) in Venezuela,” Trump said.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s late supreme leader, survived US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in which his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed, Iranian sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

The hard-line Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with close ties to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, is seen as one of the most influential figures in Iran’s clerical establishment and a possible successor to his father.

Iran has not yet announced a new leader.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Bhargav Acharya and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Caitlin Webber)