President Donald Trump said on March 23 that his administration is not negotiating with Iran’s top leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in ongoing talks and dismissed statements made by Iranian state-run media that talks aren’t occurring.
“We’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader,” Trump told reporters in a press gaggle in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump added that the man the U.S. government is speaking with is not Khamenei. “We have not heard from the son,” referring to Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the former top leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S.–Israeli strikes on Feb. 28.
“Every once in a while you’ll see a statement made [by Mojtaba Khamenei], but we don’t know if he’s living,” Trump said.
Trump added that no one in Iran “wants that job right now,” referring to the top leadership position.
“Nobody’s exactly looking forward to being the head of that particular country,” the president said, “but perhaps we’ll be able to solve that problem.”
The U.S. military has “wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two, and largely, phase three,” he said. “It’s a little tough—we’ve wiped out everybody,” he added.
“Based on the tenor and tone of these in depth, detailed, and constructive conversations, which will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, using all-capitalized text.
Iranian state-run media on Monday, however, disputed that any talks were being held, citing unnamed sources in the Iranian regime. Trump dismissed those reports in comments to reporters in Florida.
Over the weekend, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had promised retaliation if Trump attacked Iranian power infrastructure and said that it would launch strikes on power plants in Middle Eastern countries.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region to be legitimate targets, including desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.
At issue is the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf to the wider Indian Ocean, and has been effectively blocked since the conflict began, driving up oil and gas prices around the world.
Israel’s military launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear which targets had been hit.
The United Arab Emirates said it was attempting to intercept new incoming Iranian strikes on Monday afternoon. Israel is also battling the Iran-linked terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
