WASHINGTON, March 16 - President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he believes Iran wants to negotiate a deal to end the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Tehran, but he emphasized uncertainty about who is actually in charge inside Iran.
During an event at the White House, Trump said: "We don’t know who their leader is. We have people wanting to negotiate. We have no idea who they are." He repeated accounts circulating about the health and status of Iran’s reported successor, stating: "A lot of people are saying that he’s badly disfigured. They’re saying that he lost his leg ... and he’s been hurt very badly. Other people are saying he’s dead."
The president’s comments came after Iranian authorities announced that, following the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the initial strikes of the war, his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had been named as successor. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said last week the new leader was believed to have been wounded in a strike. The individual has not been seen in public since those reports.
Separately, Oman has made multiple attempts to open a channel of communication between the United States and Iran, but the White House has made it clear it is not interested in such engagement at this juncture.
The remarks underline continuing uncertainty about the command structure in Tehran and conflicting reports about the condition of the person publicly named as the successor. Officials have described the situation in differing terms, and key figures connected to the reported succession have not appeared publicly to confirm or refute the accounts.
Trump’s statements highlighted two parallel threads: the suggestion that elements within Iran may be prepared to negotiate and the simultaneous lack of clarity over who speaks for the Iranian state. The administration’s position on third-party mediation efforts remains unchanged, according to the White House declaration that it is not pursuing Omani outreach at this time.
Context and observations
The public remarks reflect unresolved questions about Iran’s leadership and underscore divergent reports about the health and whereabouts of the successor named by Tehran. Officials and commentators continue to relay varying accounts, and the individual named as successor has not made a public appearance to settle those uncertainties.