Trump says US will have a role in choosing Iran's next leader

Donald Trump acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei, is the most likely successor but made it clear he finds that outcome unacceptable and that he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader, Axios reported citing an interview with the US president.

Trump added that he refuses to accept a new Iranian leader who would continue Khamenei's policies, which he said would force the US back to war "in five years."

"Khamenei's son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran," Axios quoted Trump as saying.

Iraqi pro-Iran militias threatened to target the interests of European countries that join US-Israeli strikes on Iran after a senior Kataeb Hezbollah officer was killed in an airstrike south of Baghdad.

Ali Hassan al-Furayji, a senior deputy in Kataeb Hezbollah, was killed along with two other operatives in the overnight strike, the group’s leader Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said.

In a statement issued by the umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the militias warned that any European country joining the “Zionist-American” campaign against Iran would see its forces and interests in Iraq and across the region become “legitimate targets.”

“The criminal Zionist-American enemy continues rallying its allies against the free people of the Islamic Republic and the region, begging some of the European countries to join,” the statement said.

“Any of those countries that do join in this battle… their forces and interests in Iraq and the region will be subject to legitimate targeting,” it added.

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned that any US ground incursion into Iran would result in heavy casualties, saying Iranian forces were ready to confront American troops.

“Some US officials have said they intend to enter Iran with several thousand troops in a ground operation,” Larijani wrote on X.

“The brave sons of Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei are waiting for you to disgrace those wicked American officials with thousands of killed and captured,” he added.

“The land of Iran is not a place for the dance of the damned,” Larijani said in the message addressed to US officials.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed on Thursday the United States is facing shortages in its air defense stockpiles.

“The Americans have been forced to prioritize [the targets they attack] because of shortages in their air defense stockpiles,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

He warned that leaving US interests and soldiers exposed would have consequences beyond the Middle East.

“The consequences of leaving US interests and soldiers defenseless will not be limited to the Middle East,” he said.

The situation triggered a wave of posts across social media platforms, particularly on X, many of them sarcastic, angry or openly celebratory.

One widely shared comment drew a comparison with the authorities’ treatment of families whose relatives were killed during protests.

More than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8-9 crackdown on nationwide protests, making it the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history, according to documents reviewed by Iran International.

“In the past two months a man named Ali Khamenei did not allow families of people killed on his orders to hold funerals,” one user wrote. “Now for five days the body of that same man has been kept in a refrigerator and they cannot even issue permission for his burial. What goes around comes around.”

Another post mocked the uncertainty surrounding funeral arrangements. “The funeral procession for Khamenei will be held online through the Shad platform,” a user wrote, referring sarcastically to the government-linked education app used by Iranian schools when classes move online during crises.

Some comments echoed remarks previously made by a state television host who had mocked the deaths of protesters.

Public anger erupted last month after a presenter on Ofogh TV, a channel run by the state broadcaster IRIB and affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, referred to reports that thousands killed during the January crackdown were transported in refrigerated trailers. The program made a multiple choice question about where to keep the bodies of protesters. The show aired a segment posing a multiple-choice question about where the bodies of protesters should be kept.

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  Mockery of protest victims on state TV sparks fury in Iran

“Which refrigerator do you think they are keeping Khamenei’s body in?” one user wrote, listing options such as “Netanyahu’s refrigerator,” “an ice-cream factory freezer,” and “the freezers of Antarctica.”

Others used darker language. “The stench of Khamenei’s corpse has spread across the Middle East and they still do not dare bury it,” one user wrote.

Another post said: “Six days have passed and the rotten body of Ali Khamenei is still lying on the ground.”

Some users circulated images of a dead rat with captions claiming sarcastically that the first photo of Khamenei’s body had finally been released.

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  Khamenei ‘rat’ taunt spills from social media onto Iran’s campuses

Revenge in digital form

Many posts framed the mockery as a form of symbolic revenge.

“Khamenei left a deep wound in people’s hearts and denied grieving families the right to mourn,” one user wrote. “His agents buried bodies secretly. Now after days his own body is still on the ground.”

Others referenced reports that some families had been asked to pay for the bullets used to kill their relatives in order to receive their bodies.

“I heard Khamenei’s body has started to rot with worms,” one user wrote. “If you don’t have money for bunker-buster bombs, at least bury him.”

Another post revived a Persian saying about burial rites. “They used to say a corpse never stays on the ground,” the user wrote. “Even if someone has no one, eventually the municipality will bury them. But six days have passed and the body of Ali Khamenei is still lying there.”

“Israel said to return the body of Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic must pay for the missiles it fired, or his family must admit he was part of a Mossad spy team,” one post read, referring sarcastically to reports that families were sometimes asked to sign papers declaring their children Basij members in order to receive their bodies and permission for burial ceremonies.

Others suggested that authorities might abandon plans for a burial altogether.

“It seems they have given up burying Khamenei,” one user wrote. “Maybe they are waiting for the US Navy to throw the carcass into the sea.”

“Khamenei’s body should be bombed again,” another post said. “I’m still not satisfied.”