NEW YORK, March 10. /TASS/. Israel, with US support, may be planning to assassinate Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who is considered a politician unwilling to make concessions, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing current and former US officials.

US President Donald Trump told his advisers that he would support the idea of eliminating Mojtaba Khamenei if he was not prepared to make concessions to the US. In particular, Trump would like Iran to abandon its nuclear program under the new leader.

Meanwhile, Washington considers Khamenei a hardline politician and does not expect him to abandon "Iran's quest for nuclear weapons" or to negotiate with the US on terms favorable to that country, the publication notes.

The newspaper's sources suggested that Tel Aviv could carry out an operation to eliminate Khamenei. According to the publication, it was Israel that carried out the airstrike that killed Mojtaba Khamenei's father, Ali, the former supreme leader of Iran, and his wife.

In an interview with ABC News on March 8, Trump stated that the next supreme leader of the Islamic Republic would not stay in power for long without Washington's approval of his candidacy.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.