US President Donald Trump has said he wants to be personally involved in the process of selecting Iran’s next supreme leader.

He expressed this desire in an interview with the media outlet Axios on Thursday.

Describing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as unacceptable, Trump said, “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”

Citing the example of Venezuela, the US president added, “I have to be involved in this appointment process, as was the case with Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela.”

Meanwhile, Iranian sources confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US and Israeli airstrike in Tehran last Saturday, but his son Mojtaba Khamenei is alive.

Mojtaba Khamenei is a moderate cleric and has close ties to Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Mojtaba, known as a hardliner, is considered one of the most powerful figures in the country’s religious regime and a potential successor to his father.

Iran has not yet officially announced the name of its new supreme leader.