NEW DELHI: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh on Friday sharply criticised US President Donald Trump for suggesting Washington should have a role in choosing Iran’s next leader, saying the American leader “cannot even appoint the mayor of New York.”
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, Khatibzadeh took a dig at Trump’s remarks on Iran’s leadership succession and questioned the legitimacy of such claims.
“President Trump is asking for change in the leadership of Iran and says he should have a voice in that, while he cannot even appoint the mayor of New York,” he said, referring to the recent election victory of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, a critic of President Trump.
The Iranian minister’s comments come amid an escalating regional conflict triggered by the February 28 joint US-Israel strikes on Iran that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior officials, plunging West Asia into a widening war.
Khatibzadeh described the ongoing conflict as an “existential war” for Iran and accused the US and Israel of launching an unprovoked attack on his country. “We are under invasion. We are exercising resistance against the aggressor and carrying out a heroic nationalist defence,” he said.
“We had no option but to resist.”
Khatibzadeh alleged that Israel had drawn Washington into the confrontation due to what he described as the “delusion of a Greater Israel”, and argued that the military offensive against Tehran was driven by regional power politics rather than legitimate security concerns.
“Everybody knows, from Saudi Arabia to Oman, that this is Israel’s war. They dragged the Americans into this war because they have this delusion of a ‘Greater Israel’,” he said.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister also warned that Tehran would seek to end the American military presence in the strategically crucial Persian Gulf as the conflict unfolds. “We have no option but to put an end to the existence of American presence in the Persian Gulf area,” he said, signalling a potentially wider regional confrontation.
However, Khatibzadeh indicated that diplomatic engagement with regional partners remained important.
On the sidelines of the dialogue, he met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and emphasised the historical and civilisational ties between the two countries. “Iran and India have old civilisational roots with each other. We are Indo-Persian culture and civilisation,” he said, stressing that Tehran attaches “great importance” to its relationship with New Delhi even as the regional security environment deteriorates.
