President Donald Trump said he doesn’t believe Mojtaba Khamenei, whom Iran has tapped to succeed his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, can “live in peace”, writes CNN

“I don’t believe he can live in peace”, Trump said in an interview with Fox News of the younger Khamenei.

It was unclear what Trump meant by that but the president has consistently expressed disappointment in the pick and insisted the US be involved in picking the country’s next leader.

“I was disappointed, because we think it’s going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country. So I was disappointed to see their choice,” he told reporters in Doral, Florida, yesterday.

Asked Monday if Mojtaba Khamenei has a target on his back, Trump responded that he didn’t want to say.

“That would be inappropriate. But hey, look, I had a target on my back”, he said, referring to previous assassination attempts against him. In his remarks to Fox, Trump left the door open for a conversation with the Iranian leaders, who he said he has heard “want to talk badly”. “It’s possible, depends on what terms, possible, only possible… You know, we sort of don’t have to speak anymore, you know, if you really think about it, but it’s possible”, he said in the Fox News interview.