Donald Trump has demanded the final sign-off on Iran’s new leader after he chose Venezuela’s next president.

They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela,’ Trump told Axios, responding to reports the slain ayatollah’s son Mojtaba is the likely successor.

‘[Ali] Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,’ Trump said, adding that the US would be back in a war within five years if the heir accedes as Iran’s Supreme Leader. 

Mojtaba has survived US-Israeli airstrikes that wiped out his father and dozens of the Islamic regime’s top brass. 

He is a hardliner with close ties to Iran’s ​elite ⁠Revolutionary Guards paramilitary force and one of the most influential figures in the clerical establishment. 

President Donald Trump during a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday