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Iran’s “supreme leader”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would have been a non-presentation for potential negotiations with the United States in Turkey last week, then would remain by hiding while the American army beat Iranian nuclear sites this weekend.
President Donald Trump would have worked with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to coordinate high -level talks between us and Iranian officials in Istanbul last week.
Trump told Erdoğan that he could deploy the vice-president JD Vance and the envoy of the White House Steve Witkoff-and Trump proposed to come to Turkey himself if it could mean a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to negotiate a diplomatic resolution in the War of Israel-Iran and a nuclear transaction, Axios reported, Citing three American officials and a source with direct knowledge of the issue.
Trump also received “signals” from Iranian back chains a few hours before his call with Erdoğan whom they wanted to speak, said a White House official in Axios.
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Iranian worshipers hold their hands as signs of unity with the supreme chief of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during an anti-Israeli rally to condemn Israel’s attacks against Iran, downtown Tehran, Iran, June 20, 2025. (Morteza Nikoubazl / Nurphoto via Getty Images)
Erdoğan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would have communicated Trump’s offer to Pezeshkian and the Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi. Pezeshkian and Araghchi then sought to contact Khamenei to obtain his signature but could not reach him for hours. Sources told Axios that the Iranians then told Turkish officials that they could not bring Khamenei to approve the meeting. The Turkish side then informed the United States that the meeting was out of the table.
The Iranian faithful cry for anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans with a portrait of the Iranian supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran on June 20, 2025. (Morteza Nikoubazl / Nurphoto via Getty Images)
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According to the New York Times, Khamenei takes shelter in a bunker and suspended all electronic communications with his commanders. He only relays the ordinances through confidence help to protect his location in the midst of assassination problems.
Trump announced in an address of Saturday evening of the White House that the American army had “made massive precision strikes on the three main nuclear installations of the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan”. A few days earlier, he said that the United States knew where to find Khamenei.
“We know exactly where the so-called” supreme chief “hides,” wrote Trump earlier last week. “It is an easy target, but there is security there – we are not going to take it out (kill!), At least not for the moment. But we do not want missiles to be fired on civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is thin. Thank you for your attention to this question!
A demonstrator holds an image of the Iranian supreme chief of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while gathering with others during a rally in Tehran on June 14, 2025. (Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images)
The Iranian leader, who is active on social networks and often publishes several times a day on X, has remained silent on the platform since the United States has hit.
According to Lisa Daftari, Iranian expert and editor -in -chief of the foreign office, Iran would not make a good faith effort of diplomacy even if Khamenei was involved.
“Diplomacy was never going to work with a regime like that of Iran – a regime whose whole ideology is built on” Death to America “and” Death to Israel “, said Daftari to Fox News Digital. “Mullahs have never been serious about compromise or peace.”
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Daftari said that “Trump explored each avenue, including the diplomacy of the rear channels, but when the supreme chief has done the darkness, this confirmed what we have always known: it is a murderous duplicity regime which is not interested in dialogue.”
According to Daftari, “Trump made the right decision to act with limited and precise military strikes” to send “a clear message: if the red line was Iran had nuclear weapons, then the force – targeted and decisive – was the only responsible conclusion”.
