• Source:JND
Add as a preferred

United States President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that the airstrikes jointly conducted with Israel have not only killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but also men identified as his most likely successors.

Trump made the claim during a phone call interview with ABC News. He said, "The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates".

ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, who talked to Trump, posted details of the conversation on X.

Speaking about the possible successor, Trump said that no one they were thinking of is going to assume the Supreme Leader role as men for the second and third positions were all dead. "It's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead," Karl quoted Trump in his X post.

ALSO READ: Did Khamenei Script Iran’s Response Before His Death? Foreign Minister Says IRGC 'Independent' On Targeting Middle East

According to Karl, initially, Trump told him that the US had a good idea of what Iran's new leadership would look like. However, in the latter part of the conversation, Trump reversed his position, saying the strike had eliminated those very people.

Iranian officials have confirmed that Khamenei's top adviser Ali Shamkhani, General Mohammad Pakpour, chief of army staff General Abdol Rahim Mousavi and Defence Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh were killed in the airstrikes. 

In Khamenei's family, four members, including his daughter and a grandchild, were killed. Amid speculations over Khamenei's possible successor, the name of his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has made the rounds in the report.

ALSO READ: 'Do Not Travel' To Iraq And Iran: US Issues Level 4 Warning To Citizens Amid Middle East Tensions

Earlier on Sunday, an interim council of three members, including Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a member of the Guardian Council, as interim leader, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Court Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei. 

According to the Iranian Constitution, Arafi would discharge duties as the Supreme Leader until Khamenei's next successor is appointed.


Also In News