US President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran wants him to be the next Supreme Leader, in a swipe at the apparent dangers of being the head of the Iranian government.
Speaking at a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) fundraiser in Washington, Trump joked that the US-Israeli assassination campaign against Iran's leadership had been so successful that it had made the coveted Supreme Leader position an unwanted role for Iran's clergy.
"There's never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran," Trump told the audience.
"We'll listen to some of the things they say we hear very clearly. They say, 'I don't want it'. We'd like to make you the next Supreme Leader.' 'No, thank you. I don't want it'."
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who governed the country from 1989 to 2026, was assassinated on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran, with his son, Mojtaba, announced as the new head of state on 8 March.
There have been questions about his fate , with no public appearances by Mojtaba since he was elected by the Assembly of Experts earlier this month, and with US and Israeli intelligence circulating reports that he could be dead or seriously injured.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became Iran's first supreme leader in 1979, following the revolution which overthrew the Shah. He held the position until his death in 1989.
The position is aligned with Khomeini's ideology of 'wilayat al-faqih', or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, in which senior Shia Islamic scholars govern society until the reappearance of the hidden Imam. Supreme leaders should typically be an ayatollah, the title for the most senior figures in Shia Islamic jurisprudence, a qualification Trump is not believed to have.
The US and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran on 28 February, killing Khamenei and senior Iranian figures over the following three weeks, although they have not been unable to stop Tehran from launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel and its Gulf neighbours and blocking the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Trump pulled back from threats to target Iranian energy infrastructure this week, claiming that peace talks were taking place between Tehran and Washington, something Iran has repeatedly denied.
Iran and the US have each issued their own set of ambitious demands to end the war, while both have also made a series of contradictory remarks about progress in the talks.
On Thursday, Trump said that the Iranians are "great negotiators" and the US was seeking a deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and finishes Tehran's military ambitions in the region for good.
"I don't know if we'll be able to do that. I don't know if we're willing to do that," he said about a deal.
"They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward. We'll see if they want to do it. If they don't, we're their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away."