Top updates: Trump says US must have role in picking Iran’s next leader

United States President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that Washington must be involved in choosing the next leader of Iran.

“We’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran,” Trump told the news agency. “We’re going to have to choose that person.”

His comments came amid a rapidly expanding conflict that began on February 28 when Israel and the US launched a joint military operation targeting the Iranian government, triggering a retaliation by Tehran.

Here’s more on this and other top updates from the conflict in West Asia:

• Trump told Reuters that he thinks the next leader of Iran is unlikely to be Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has emerged as a frontrunner to succeed his father as per reports. “We want to be involved in the process of ​choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future, so we don’t have to go back every five years and do this again and again,” the US president said. “We want somebody that's going to be great for the people, great for the country.”
• Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the attacks on February 28. He was a significant figure among Shia Muslims globally, and had controlled all branches of the Iranian government and the armed forces since 1989. After Khamenei’s killing, senior Iranian cleric Alireza Arafi was appointed to serve as part of Iran’s interim leadership.
• The US president on Thursday also drew a parallel between the leadership succession in Iran and Venezuela. In January, the US military abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for alleged drug trafficking. Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was left in charge.
• In another interview to NBC, Trump on Thursday said it would be a “waste of time” currently to consider sending US troops into Iran.
• On Thursday, the US House of Representatives rejected a measure to halt hostilities with Iran, The Guardian reported. The bipartisan resolution, introduced by Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie, would have required the withdrawal of US forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress authorised the campaign.
• The resolution failed on a 212-219 vote in the Lower Chamber of Congress. While only four Democrats voted against the resolution, two Republicans broke party lines to support it. This came a day after the Senate rejected a similar resolution meant to halt the country’s military strikes on Iran and ending its involvement in the conflict in West Asia.
• Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told The Hindu on Thursday that Tehran was not stopping Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz. “…But India must ask the US why it is targeting Iranian ships in the Indian Ocean,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “They are the threat; they should be asked.”
• His comments came after Iran claimed on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz was “closed” for shipping traffic, warning that any vessel attempting to pass through the strategic waterway would be set on fire. The narrow waterbody connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. About 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption traverses the maritime chokepoint.

Also read: Why the US-Iran war will hurt India more than China

The conflict

On Saturday, Israel and the US launched a joint operation to “degrade the capabilities” of the Iranian government.

The attacks came amid tensions between the three countries over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance.

Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

Iran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region, and targeted major cities in other Gulf countries and some ships.

The tensions

The US has repeatedly demanded that Iran give up its nuclear programme, threatening that Tehran must meet its terms or face consequences.

Khamenei had warned on February 1 that an attack by the US would spark a “regional war”.

Israel had been preparing for a possible conflict with Iran for several weeks.

In June, Tehran and Tel Aviv agreed to a ceasefire after 12 days of hostilities.

At the time, the Israeli military had struck what it claimed were nuclear targets, and other sites, in Iran with the aim of stalling Tehran’s nuclear programme. Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israel.

Both countries had later accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

The two countries had been nudged by the US to accept the ceasefire after Washington on June 22 joined Israel’s war against Iran. The US military had carried out what Trump had described as a “very successful attack” on Iranian nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan.

While Trump had claimed at the time that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “completely obliterated” in the attacks, Washington’s preliminary intelligence assessment had said that the strikes only set it back by a few months, and did not destroy its nuclear programme.

Trump’s fresh focus on Iran came after the US’ military operation in Venezuela. On January 3, the US military abducted Maduro and Flores.

Almost simultaneously, on December 28, protests erupted in Iran initially focused on discontent about rising inflation. However, they later expanded as demonstrations in more than 100 towns demanded an end to clerical rule.

Following this, Trump had announced that the US military was moving warships towards Iran “just in case” he wants to take action, saying that he was “watching them very closely”.

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