Trump says U.S. isn't negotiating with Iran's new supreme leader

President Donald Trump denied Monday that the U.S. was in direct talks with the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and insisted he was dealing with someone whom he believed held actual authority.

“We’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader,” he told reporters. “We have not heard from the son."

Mojtaba Khamenei is the son of Ali Khamenei, whom Trump took out in the opening salvos of the war. The younger Khamenei's status remains unclear and rumors have swirled of his incapacitation.

The Jerusalem Post on Monday, citing anonymous sources, reported that Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf was leading negotiations. Ghalibaf's authority to conduct such negotiations remains unclear, as does his ability to control the military, which is dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Trump on Monday announced that negotiations with Iran had born enough fruit for him to postpone his threatened strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure by five days.

Tehran, however, has denied any such talks and said that Trump was referring to messages passed through intermediaries and attempting to calm the markets.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.