ANC’s Lindiwe Zulu slams US: Trump can’t dictate who Iran chooses as leader

Mojtaba Khamenei was named Iran’s new supreme leader, succeeding his father just more than a week after he was killed in US-Israeli strikes. The 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is widely viewed as a hard-line figure with close ties to the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Israel has already described him as a potential target, while Trump said last week that he should have a say in picking a new leader.

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment,” he said.

“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.” The current appointment of a Supreme Leader is overseen by Iran’s clerics. Speaking toThe Citizenat the Nizamiye Mosque Ramadan Ifthar Dinner under the theme “Friendship and Dialogue, Unity in Diversity”, Zulu said nations across the globe have the right to elect their own leaders. “Well, people have to elect the people or put in a position of leadership, the people that they want.

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It is the same here in South Africa: when somebody else, somewhere else, says to us, ‘Don’t elect this one; elect this one’, of course, it goes according to our own beliefs. “So, we wish them well, but when all is said and done, we just would like to see a process where peace is brought upon the people of the Middle East. Peace is brought upon all the countries in the Middle East,” Zulu said.

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