4 min readNew DelhiMar 2, 2026 10:21 PM IST
First published on: Mar 2, 2026 at 10:21 PM IST
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the White House didn’t know who could succeed deceased Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the the new leader of Iran.
In an interview with CNN, Trump said, “We don’t know what the succession plan is in Iran or who the new leader will be.” This comes as the conflict in the Middle East enters its third day after US-Israeli coordinated strikes killed Khamenei and leading figures in the military and state apparatus.
Despite Trump hinting that his administration does not have a clear picture of who will carry things till the endgame (or till negotiations restart), his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, made it clear that the Pentagon is determined to move forward with the offensive.
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In a briefing on Monday, Hegseth reiterated the US Department of War’s commitment to “surgically, overwhelmingly and unapologetically” continue the conflict, adding that it will only end on ‘America First’ conditions. “We didn’t start this war but under President Trump we’re finishing it,” he said.
After the initial strike on the Islamic Republic, the US President had pushed Iranian public for a regime change, calling on them to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the rulers. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday made a similar appeal, adding that Tel Aviv will “create the conditions for the brave people of Iran to free themselves.”
Before his killing, Khamenei had already named four layers of successors for military and government roles.
On Saturday’s strikes, Trump in a Fox News interview said that 48 leaders of the regime were “gone in one shot.”
Trump doesn’t rule out ‘American boots on ground’
Trump said he has not ruled out having American personnel directly involved in the conflict on Iranian soil.
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump told the New York Post on Monday.
“I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”
The succession scenario
On Monday, Iran named Ayatollah Arafi, a close associate of Khamenei, part of the Leadership Council to temporarily head the country. Arafi currently serves as deputy chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body that appoints the Supreme Leader. Ali Larijani, the country’s top national security official and a former IRGC commander, has been effectively running the country, as per reports, sidelining President Masoud Pezeshkian.
After Saturday’s strikes killed Khamenei, the Islamic Republic launched retaliatory drone and missile strikes on Washington’s allies in the Middle East — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar — all of which house US military bases.
Four US fatalities have been reported so far at a US base in Kuwait.
The main agenda
Washington’s primary goal has been to ensure that the Islamic Republic does not build a nuclear weapon. The strikes commenced a day after negotiations between the US and Iran on the latter’s nuclear enrichment programme allegedly fell apart in Geneva.
The US had incapacitated the programme last June in a bombing campaign after it struck three key enrichment sites. It has been a cause of concern for Israel and a point of contention with the West for decades. Saudi officials have said that they will acquire nuclear weapons if Tehran does.
Hegseth said Iran was stalling the negotiations and using the talks to “restart its nuclear ambitions.” “They were stalling, buying time to reload their missile stockpiles and restart their nuclear ambitions,” he added.
Washington's primary goal so far has been to ensure that Iran does not build a nuclear weapon. (File/AP Photo) 
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