Iran Names New Supreme Leader — Days After Trump Branded Him a ‘Lightweight’

Iran has chosen a new Supreme Leader on Sunday to replace the late Ali Khamenei, who was killed by U.S.-Israeli strikes on the first day of the Iran conflict.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts named Khamenei’s son, 56-year old Mojtaba Khamenei as his father’s successor.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond reported from Tel Aviv:

“This is just in from Iran’s Assembly of Experts: This is the body of senior Iranian clerics responsible for electing the next supreme leader, and they have now chosen, just over a week after the assassination of the Ayatollah Ali Hhamenei,” Diamond said.

“They have chosen his son, Mojtaba Khamenei as his successor. He is a 56 year old who is known for having close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and…his selection here will in large part be viewed as a continuation of his father’s rule and quite a hard-line stance for this Iranian body of experts to be choosing as the next supreme leader of Iran,” Diamond said.

Diamond said Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the strike that killed his father that also killed the younger Khamenei’s wife.

“And so, now we see the direction that Iran is heading in the wake of the assassination of the longtime supreme leader. It’s also important to note that this is someone who President Trump has said would be unacceptable to him in terms of leading Iran in the future. The president had said in an interview with Axios a few days ago that Mojtaba Khamenei was a, quote, ‘lightweight,’ and that choosing him was unacceptable, that this would be viewed as something that would kind of continue the direction of Iran.”

Neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have yet commented.

Trump — as Diamond referenced in his report — dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as a worthy successor in an interview with Axios on Thursday.

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight,” Trump said.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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