President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s new leader is ‘not going to last long’ without U.S. approval as Operation Epic Fury continues into its second week.

‘He’s going to have to get approval from us,’ Trump told ABC News in an interview. ‘If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.’

‘I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again or worse let them have a nuclear weapon,’ the president continued.

Trump’s comments come after Iranian state media reported that a majority consensus had been reached on a new supreme leader following the Feb. 28 assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri, who serves on Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body tasked with selecting the supreme leader, did not offer any names but acknowledged to the Mehr News Agency that there are still ‘some obstacles.’

ABC News reported that Trump said it’s possible he would be in favor of someone with ties to the old regime.

‘I would, in order to choose a good leader I would, yeah, I would. There are numerous people that could qualify,’ he said.

The Associated Press reported that several figures are being viewed as potential successors to Iran’s supreme leadership. They include:

• Mojtaba Khamenei — Son of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
• Ali Reza Arafi — Senior Shiite cleric

• Hassan Rouhani — Former president of Iran
• Hassan Khomeini — Grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic
• Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri — Head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Iranian leadership in a post on X last week that any successor who tries to ‘destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people’ will be an ‘unequivocal target for elimination.’

‘It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides,’ Katz said.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has elected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, according to reports.

Iran International cited sources who claimed the decision was made ‘under pressure’ from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the second-eldest son of Ali Khamenei and was born in Mashhad in 1969.

His early childhood coincided with his father’s rise as a revolutionary figurehead opposing the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Ali Khamenei moved from a dissident cleric to a senior government official, holding key posts in the regime including deputy defense minister.

The family moved from Mashhad to Tehran, where Mojtaba attended Alavi High School, which is a school that is known for educating members of Iran’s political and religious elite.

There, he received a general and religious education and graduated in 1987. In 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ali Khamenei was appointed supreme leader.

That same year, Mojtaba began his formal clerical studies in Tehran. He studied under his father as well as Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who later served as Iran’s chief justice.

Over the years, Mojtaba was seen constantly with his father and was also regarded as an influential figure behind the scenes.

In 2019, the U.S. sanctioned Mojtaba Khamenei under Executive Order 13867. The U.S. Treasury Department stated that he had been ‘representing the supreme leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father.’

The Treasury also said that the supreme leader had delegated part of his leadership responsibilities to Mojtaba. 

It said he worked closely with commanders of the IRGC’s Quds Force and the Basij Resistance Force, positioning him as a key player in both domestic and international security affairs.

Mojtaba is married to the daughter of former Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel.

Among Ali Khamenei’s sons, he is considered the most powerful and politically influential, according to reports.

Initial reports had indicated Mojtaba was among around 40 officials killed in Feb. 28’s strike targeting Iran’s highest-ranking cleric.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, President Trump said strikes on Iran eliminated much of the regime’s anticipated leadership succession bench.  ‘Most of the people we had in mind are dead,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday.

As yet, Iranian state media has not confirmed the succession reports.

MCLEAN, Va. – As Americans are stranded in the Middle East amid the U.S. and Israel war with Iran, government and private agencies are working around the clock to conduct evacuations.

In addition to the U.S. Department of State’s 24/7 task force aimed at evacuating Americans, private security firm Global Guardian is also working around the clock to complete the same mission.

As of Friday, Global Guardian has evacuated more than 4,000 people from the Middle East, according to its CEO and President, Dale Robert Buckner.

While operations and logistics teams sit in an office building in northern Virginia, the firm has personnel in more than 140 countries, allowing Global Guardian access to nearly every corner of the world for emergency response or evacuations.

‘We provide medical evac services, we provide kidnap, ransom, extortion negotiation payment if someone is kidnapped or extorted,’ Buckner said. ‘We’re providing about 300 missions a month of executive protection travel, in about 84 countries a month.’

The private security firm also conducts camera surveillance of residences and commercial property and has cyber analysts monitoring mobile devices. 

After the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in a joint attack last weekend, the firm has been coordinating multiple emergency response evacuations — but this isn’t the first time it has assisted Americans out of a crisis zone.

‘That means getting people out of Puerto Vallarta a week ago, and Jalisco, Mexico. That means getting people out of Asheville, North Carolina when it got wiped out by a hurricane,’ Buckner said. 

Logistically, getting tourists out of a war zone and back to safety is a process, but the firm works fast, completing their first border crossing within the first six hours of the missile strikes.

Immediately, the firm received a call from a pair of students studying abroad, Deputy Vice President of Operations Colin O’Brien told Fox News. He said they were trying to leave Dubai.

‘Within about four and a half hours from the phone call, we had our teams in motion to go pick these people up and it was two college-aged women,’ said O’Brien.

‘Put them in the car, we were then able to move from the Omani border and by eight hours we were at the border. Work through the border checkpoint to a hotel in Muscat, where we could stop and give them a short rest while we arrange their transportation home,’ he says. 

The group said it remains active year-round to ensure evacuation plans are in place before disasters strike.

‘There’s a narrative of, here’s the pickup point, here’s the key crossing site,’ Buckner said. ‘This is what you’re gonna need from a paperwork standpoint, legally. And then we’re gonna put you in a hotel or straight onto a commercial flight. Most likely, at this point in the war, we’re gonna put you on a private charter.’

Buckner said most of these missions happening in the region are ground movement, done by locals. He says in the 140 countries the firm is in, they have ground teams working year-round. Consistently training year-round. 

‘We’re communicating, we’re coordinating, we’re executing. Executive protection agents, armed agents, armed vehicles, large-scale event support with medical and security personnel,’ he said, describing the firm’s standard operating capabilities.

‘We’re coordinating whether the firm needs drivers. From Dubai to Oman, Israel to either Oman, Jordan or Egypt. Out of Bahrain into Saudi Arabia,’ Buckner said.

While the firm is coordinating with the State Department, it said it has not yet conducted a flight mission on behalf of the department.

Global Guardian offers these services through what it calls a ‘Duty of Care Membership,’ which Buckner said costs $15,000 per year for a family of five.

‘You are going to sign a contract — whether it’s a family, a family office or typically a large corporate logo. Then we become, at your beck and call,’ Buckner said, describing the emergency response services included in the agreement.

For Americans currently stuck in the Middle East, Buckner said the cost of evacuation using ground and air resources varies depending on the situation and location.

Fresh satellite images give a rare aerial view of the damage across Iran after U.S.-Israeli strikes and what Tehran’s retaliation left behind across the region.

Planet Labs satellite imagery captured burning ships and damaged facilities at the Konarak base in southern Iran, as well as significant destruction at Iran’s naval headquarters in Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, reflecting the scale of the strikes on military infrastructure.

Imagery from Vantor shows damage to facilities and vessels located in Iran’s Bushehr port in the Persian Gulf.

In addition to naval assets, satellite photos show a bunker at Bushehr air base hit by a strike, leaving a large crater and destroying several nearby small buildings.

More strikes targeted the Choqa Balk drone facility in western Iran.

Radar systems at the Zahedan air base in eastern Iran — near the country’s borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan — were also struck.

The two facilities are about 800 to 900 miles apart, underscoring the broad reach of the coordinated strikes.

Satellite imagery also reveals damage to aircraft on the tarmac at Shiraz air base, including scorch marks and debris around several parking areas.

Satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows thick smoke plumes rising above Tehran, signaling explosions and fires inside the Iranian capital.

The smoke underscores how the conflict has moved beyond isolated military sites and into the heart of Iran’s political center.

Iran has since responded with missile and drone strikes of its own, expanding the conflict across the region. 

Satellite images reveal damage to the port city of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah is the third most populous after Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The Jebel Ali Port, the region’s largest maritime hub, was also targeted, underscoring how the retaliation extended beyond military sites to key infrastructure.

The new satellite imagery comes on the heels of U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several top members of the regime, triggering a succession crisis.

President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that Iran’s new leader is ‘not going to last long’ without U.S. approval as Operation Epic Fury marches into a third week. 

– British opposition leader Nigel Farage is taking aim at his country’s prime minister for not supporting the U.S. in its military strikes against Iran.

‘I think not to support America when it asks for support is a pretty extraordinary thing to have done.,’ Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said in an exclusive interview Saturday with Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump has blasted Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially blocking the U.S. from using British military bases, specifically Diego Garcia — a strategic base located on an Indian Ocean island — for strikes against Iran during Operation Epic Fury. Starmer later permitted the use of the bases for ‘defensive strikes’ after Trump’s complaints. 

Starmer hasn’t spoken to Trump since they connected on a call last weekend, after the U.S. and Israel launched their strikes on Iran. The British prime minister has made clear his country would not be joining the U.S. in attacking Iran, emphasizing he didn’t believe in ‘regime change from the skies.’

Trump, taking a jab at Starmer, said earlier this week, ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

Farage criticized Starmer for not changing his stance, ‘even now, despite the fact that we’ve got an RAF base in Cyprus that’s been under attack, we’ve got allies of ours in the Gulf that are under attack.’

‘I think there’s been less than wholehearted support has come for the Americans in this endeavor. And I think the British Prime Minister on the world stage, he’s upset the Americans,’ Farage said. ‘He’s upset the Cypriots. He’s upset the Gulf states. And he’s pretty friendless at the moment.’

Farage, who seven years ago founded the populist Brexit Party, which later transformed into the Reform UK party, was interviewed ahead of an appearance at an annual economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent political group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

Starmer has been feeling Trump’s wrath not only for their differences over the attack on Iran, but also over the British deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where Diego Garcia is located, to Mauritius. Starmer has argued his lease-back deal is the only way to secure the British-U.S. military base on Diego Garcia.

Farage, who has been vocal in his opposition to the deal, told Fox News Digital that ‘outside of America itself,’ Diego Garcia ‘is the most important base you’ve got in the whole world. Now it’s there as part of British sovereignty. We have a treaty between us that goes back to 1966 and Keir Starmer is on the verge of giving away the sovereignty of the Chagos islands and Diego Garcia to Mauritius.’

‘If Trump initially had problems with the Brits over using the base, just think what it will be like with the heavily Chinese-influenced Mauritians. They already have said they believe that America should not have struck Iran, that it was against international law, then are calling for a ceasefire,’ Farage said.

Farage, who said his opposition to the deal was a key factor in his weekend trip to the U.S., said, ‘I would just urge the president, this administration, stay firm. Tell the British government you will not accept giving away of sovereignty to Mauritius, and let’s ensure a future for Diego Garcia. I think it’s really important.’

Farage, who’s hoping to become Britain’s next prime minister, argued that Starmer’s relationship with Trump is beyond repair.

‘I think the personal relationship between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump has gone. I mean, Trump can be forgiving, but, you know, that would take a long time. So I think that breakdown is there,’ he said.

But as for the longstanding bonds between the two countries, known as the ‘special relationship,’ Farage was more optimistic.

‘The special relationship went through bad times in the past. We had a massive fallout 70 years ago over Suez, but we got back together again. I’m convinced it can, and it will, be mended,’ he predicted.

King Charles III will reflect on ‘the increasing pressures of conflict’ across the world in a ‘time of great challenge’ during a speech planned for Monday, according to multiple reports. 

‘We join together on this Commonwealth Day at a time of great challenge and great possibility,’ a preview of the 77-year-old’s Commonwealth Day speech says.

The king’s speech continued: ‘Across our world, communities and nations face the increasing pressures of conflict, climate change and rapid transformation. Yet it is often in such testing moments that the enduring spirit of the Commonwealth is most clearly revealed.’

The speech will come a little more than a week after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom didn’t take part in for the sake of their national interest.

‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with,’ President Donald Trump said earlier this week in a criticism of Starmer amid a perceived lack of support for the U.S. and Israel’s joint military operation against Iran.

‘By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either,’ the president said, referring to Starmer blocking the United States’ use of U.K. bases to launch attacks on Iran.

Britain has since allowed the U.S. to use its bases in the region for defensive purposes against Iran’s retaliatory strikes. It has also mobilized fighter jets and plans to send a destroyer and possibly an aircraft carrier. 

The president referenced the Chagos Islands Tuesday, which are British territories in the Indian Ocean, saying it has taken ‘three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.’

‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised,’ he said.

Later, the president said the United Kingdom has been ‘very, very uncooperative with that stupid island.’ 

‘It’s a shame,’ Trump said. ‘That country, the U.K., and I love that country, I love it.’

‘This is not the age of Churchill,’ he added.

Trump slammed Starmer again on Saturday, accusing the prime minister of joining the war after the U.S. had ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Starmer has defended his decision to stay out of the conflict, saying the U.K. was ‘not involved in the ​initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now.’

‘But in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and ⁠drones, we will protect our people in the region,’ Starmer said in an address Monday to Parliament. ‘President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the ​initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.’

The king and other senior royals will gather at Westminster Abbey on Monday for the annual Commonwealth Day celebration, which recognizes the 56 countries voluntarily connected to the U.K., many of which were once part of the British Empire.

The preview of the speech continues: ‘Working together, we can ensure that the Commonwealth continues to stand as a force for good — grounded in community, committed to the kind of restorative sustainability that has a return on investment, enriched by culture, steadfast in its care for our planet, and united in friendship and in the service of its people.’

Charles’ speech at the abbey will also be the largest gathering of the royal family since former Prince Andrew was arrested on Feb. 19.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying he was joining the war in Iran after the U.S. has ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Trump’s statement came after the U.K. Ministry of Defense said that one of the country’s two aircraft carriers had been placed on advanced readiness in Portsmouth, England, for a possible mobilization to the Middle East, according to the BBC.

A British destroyer, HMS Dragon, is also in Portsmouth, waiting to leave for Cyprus after delays.

Starmer said that while the U.K. wasn’t involved in the strikes, they are ‘operating defensively in the region.’

In an address to the British people on Sunday, Starmer condemned ‘indiscriminate’ attacks by Iran following the U.S. strikes, adding, ‘the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source.’

He added that Britain has agreed to the United States’ request to use British bases for that ‘limited’ purpose.

After the strikes, Trump told the Telegraph in the U.K. that he was ‘very disappointed’ in Starmer, claiming it ‘took far too long’ for the prime minister to allow the U.S. to use British bases in the region. 

British fighter jets are also flying over Jordan, Cyprus and Qatar to strengthen defense in the region, and a Merlin helicopter is on the way for additional airborne surveillance, according to the Ministry of Defense.

‘While the region has been plunged into chaos, my focus is providing calm, levelheaded leadership in the national interest,’ Starmer said this week. ‘That means deploying our military and diplomatic strength to protect our people. And it means having the strength to stand firm by our values and our principles, no matter the pressure to do otherwise. The longstanding British position is that the best way forward for the regime and world is a negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions.’

He said that’s why he made the decision that the U.K. would not join the initial coordinated strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

In Parliament this week, Starmer added, ‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. Any U.K. ‌actions must ⁠always have a lawful basis, and a viable, thought-through plan,’ Starmer said. ‘This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.’

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss reposted Trump’s Saturday Truth Social comments on X, writing, ‘Justified and damning.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Starmer’s office for comment.

Norwegian police are investigating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Oslo that caused no injuries and only minor damage.

Amid the war on Iran, the Norwegian Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hansen is deploying ‘considerable resources’ to search for potential multiple perpetrators.

‘This is an unacceptable incident that we are taking very seriously,’ she told Norwegian press agency NTB.

A ‘loud bang’ was reported at the U.S. embassy in Oslo early Sunday morning at 1 a.m. local time (Saturday 7 p.m. ET), according to police, and eyewitnesses told Reuters that they saw thick smoke by the entrance of the consular section.

‘There was a very thick layer of smoke on the street,’ said Sebastian Toerstad, 18, a high school student who drove past the embassy at the time of the explosion.

‘There was some damage to the entrance.’

No explosive devices had been found in the area, according to police.

‘Investigations have been carried out at the scene with the aid of dogs, drones and a helicopter, searching for one or more potential perpetrators,’ the Oslo police department said in a statement.

PST, the Norwegian police security service, called in additional personnel following the incident but has not changed the country’s terror threat level, according to communication adviser Martin Bernsen.

PST operations manager Mikael Dellemyr does not ‘connect’ the attack to U.S. bombings in the Middle East or terrorist or Iranian retaliation.

‘It is far too early’ in the investigation, he told Oslo’s TV 2.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

. – One week into the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, two Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee say the military operation has ‘degraded’ Tehran’s ability to strike back.

But in exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Budd of North Carolina emphasized that the fighting will not lead to U.S. involvement in ‘forever wars’ in the volatile Middle East.

‘Our military is doing a great job,’ Scott said. And pointing to Iran, he said, ‘They want to destroy America. We’ve got to stop them.’

Budd highlighted that ‘we have significantly degraded Iran’s ability to shoot back at us… their capacities are degraded. We’ve had great success.’

Budd and Scott were interviewed as they attended an economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent conservative group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

President Donald Trump, who called for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender,’ said on Saturday that Tehran will be ‘hit very hard’ and warned the U.S. is considering ‘areas and groups’ not previously considered to target.

Over the past week, ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has widened in scope as Iran has retaliated against a growing number of nations in the region. This week, the Republican-controlled House and Senate, in separate votes nearly entirely along party lines, rejected moves by Democrats to restrict the president’s ability to steer the fighting.

The president said on Thursday, in an interview with Axios, that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes against Iran a week ago.

And there are concerns among many on the right that the strikes against Iran could lead to prolonged American military involvement in the region, which Trump has repeatedly campaigned against during his three runs for the presidency.

‘Trump doesn’t want to be in forever wars. Every time I’ve talked to him, he doesn’t want that,’ Scott said. ‘But I think what we do want to make sure we don’t have another Ayatollah that wants to… chant Death to America and death to our allies and try to destroy us.’

Budd added that ‘we’re not up for forever wars. We want to get in, get this thing done, get out and have peace for our country and the rest of the region.’

The latest Fox News national poll indicated that American voters are divided on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, even as a majority sees the country as a security risk. 

Sixty-one percent of those questioned viewed Iran as a danger to the U.S., according to the survey conducted Feb. 28-March 2. But that concern did not translate into majority support for the current U.S. military action, as 50% approved and 50% disapproved.

Support for the attacks was lower in national polling from other news organizations.

But the Fox News poll and the other surveys indicated widespread support among Republicans.

‘Trump’s doing the right thing. He’s saving American lives by making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile. So he’s doing the right thing,’ Scott emphasized.

Budd added, ‘I’m very excited [about] what President Trump’s done… The goal is American prosperity and American safety, and that’s what President Trump wants.’

Oil prices have shot up since the start of the fighting, instantly resulting in higher costs for gasoline across America. That’s a major concern for Republicans as they aim to keep control of the House and Senate majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

‘Hopefully it’s all going to be short term. Hopefully… the demolition of the Iranian military will happen quickly and actually will get lower oil prices,’ Scott said.

Budd acknowledged that ‘we are going to have some short-term disruptions.’

But the senator was optimistic that ‘very soon we’ll have gas prices much cheaper than ever before. We were already on that pathway. President Trump is all about stability. He’s all about the price of oil.’