As Iran’s clerical assembly was naming Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader, US President Donald Trump was making clear that the question of when and how the conflict would end was a matter for American and Israeli decision-making, not Iranian diplomacy. In an interview with Israeli media published on Sunday, Trump stated that the decision on ending the war would be made mutually between himself and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — leaving no obvious role for Iranian preferences or negotiations in the equation.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was confirmed by the Assembly of Experts in a vote described as decisive. He is the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and takes power with no formal governing experience. His deep ties to the IRGC and conservative clergy made him the consensus choice for the clerical body. Iran’s institutional establishment — the IRGC, armed forces, parliament, and security officials — all endorsed the appointment rapidly and comprehensively. The Houthi rebels in Yemen offered international congratulations.
Trump’s interview contained other significant statements. He claimed that Iran had been on the verge of destroying Israel and that he and Netanyahu had together prevented this outcome. He described the conflict as effectively having neutralized a country that sought Israel’s elimination. He also warned, before the appointment was announced, that Iran’s next supreme leader would not last long without American approval. After the confirmation, he responded with a more measured “We’ll see what happens.”
The military operations on the ground reflected the Trump-Netanyahu framing of the conflict as an ongoing, jointly managed campaign. Israel launched fresh strikes on Iranian infrastructure on Monday, targeting regime assets in central Iran and also hitting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran struck five Gulf states simultaneously — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE — killing two civilians in Saudi Arabia and damaging Bahrain’s desalination plant. Oil markets rose sharply on IRGC threats.
The convergence of a new Iranian supreme leader and a US-Israeli strategic alignment that explicitly excludes Iran from decisions about the war’s conclusion creates a deeply asymmetric situation. Mojtaba Khamenei leads a country that is being told it has no voice in the conflict’s end — and that the leader it has just appointed is, by American definition, unacceptable. His response to this frame will be one of the earliest and most consequential decisions of his tenure.
Iran’s New Supreme Leader Appointed as Netanyahu and Trump Coordinate on War’s End
