US ‘figuring out who’s in charge’ in Iran after Trump hails talks progress

The US is “figuring out exactly who’s in charge” in Iran, the White House has said, after Donald Trump insisted “great progress” had been made in talks to end the war now in its second month.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a news conference Tehran’s leadership had been “very fragmented” by the conflict, which has seen key figures in the regime killed, including the country’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Earlier on US TV, secretary of state Marco Rubio said there were “some fractures going on there (in Iran) internally”.

And while there were individuals “saying some of the right things privately”, according to Mr Rubio, they would have to “see if these people end up being the ones in charge, seeing if they’re the ones that have the power to deliver”.

The US president has threatened the destruction of Iran’s energy sites and possibly its water desalination plants unless Tehran agrees to a ceasefire and ensures the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route is “open for business”.

At the same time as building up US combat forces in the region and raising the prospect of military action to seize Iran’s Kharg Island, a crucial facility for oil exports, Mr Trump also indicated headway had been achieved with a “more reasonable” Iranian regime to end the war triggered by the US-Israeli strikes.

However, Iran has denied any direct talks.

The president wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘open for business’, we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinisation plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched’.”

Pressed over who Washington was in negotiations with, Ms Leavitt said: “As secretary Rubio said today, the leadership is very fragmented.

“We have really neutered their intercommunication systems, and that’s part of this process of diplomacy to continue figuring out exactly who’s in charge.

“I know they appointed a new ayatollah. Haven’t seen or heard much from him, and so that’s part of this diplomatic process that’s under way right now.”

She previously told reporters: “Of course, anything that they say to us privately will be tested, and we will ensure that they are being held accountable to their word.

“And if they are not, the president has laid out the military consequences that the Iranian regime will see if they don’t hold true to the words that we are hearing privately behind the scenes.

“When the president says, more reasonable.

“Again, these folks are appearing more reasonable behind the scenes, privately in these conversations than perhaps some of the previous leaders who are now no longer on planet Earth because they lied to the United States and they strung us along in negotiations.”

Mr Rubio was also tackled over who the US was in talks with after branding members of the Iranian regime “lunatics” and “insane” in an interview with ABC.

Mr Rubio said: “Well, I’m not going to disclose to you who those people are because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran.

“Look, there’s some fractures going on there internally.

“And at the end of the day, I think that if there are people in Iran who now, given everything that’s happened, are willing to move in a different direction for their country, that would be great.”

He added: “Obviously they’re not going to put it out in press releases, and what they say to you or put out there for the world doesn’t necessarily reflect what they’re saying in our conversations.

“But at the end of the day, we have to see if these people end up being the ones in charge, seeing if they’re the ones that have the power to deliver.”

Meanwhile, Ms Leavitt also said the president would be interested in calling on Arab countries to help pay for the cost of the Iran war.

Responding to a question on whether nations in the region should be asked to stump up cash, she said: “I think it’s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do.

“It’s an idea that I know that he has and something that I think you’ll hear more from him on.”