Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed the idea of his country’s Supreme Leader meeting Donald Trump, after the U.S. President floated the prospect.

On Wednesday (June 3, 2026), Mr. Trump told the New York Post: “Yeah, I’d like to meet him,” when he was asked about a possible encounter, adding that “we probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out”.

West Asia war updates on June 6, 2026

Iran’s top diplomat however played down the chances in an interview with Lebanese media aired on Thursday (June 4, 2026) night, suggesting it was not realistic.

“I saw a report which apparently said that he [Trump] had stated that he was ready for a meeting or that he wanted to hold a meeting,” Mr. Araghchi told Al Mayadeen television channel.

“I think we should be realistic and think and live in the real world,” he said.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed Iran’s Supreme Leader in March after the death of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on February 28.

Mr. Araghchi said in the interview that during the attacks that killed Ali Khamenei he had been inside the leader’s office where he died, but in another wing of the building so was unharmed.

The attacks prompted Iran to retaliate with missile and drone strikes against Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf region.

Mr. Araghchi also said the new Supreme Leader has a “completely close and effective presence in the country’s affairs and has full control”.

He said Mojtaba Khamenei’s absence from public view since his appointment was “due to security considerations” surrounding the war, which has been paused since April 8 by a fragile ceasefire.

Mediated and direct talks between Iran and the United States have so far failed to produce a permanent end to the conflict.

An Iranian Health Ministry official said on Monday (May 25, 2026) the injuries suffered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes in late February were only “superficial”, offering a rare account of the day he was wounded.

The 56-year-old has not appeared publicly since he was named as Iran’s supreme leader on March 8, issuing only written statements, fuelling speculation about his health.

In March, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Mr. Mojtaba was “believed to be alive, wounded and disfigured”. Mr. Mojtaba succeeded his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28 that triggered retaliatory Iranian attacks across the region.

On Monday (May 25), Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour described the day Mr. Mojtaba was wounded and his arrival at a hospital, which he did not identify.

He said Mr. Mojtaba arrived at the hospital around 1:00 p.m. Tehran time on February 28 and “entered the operating room along with several other wounded individuals.”

“Apart from superficial injuries to the face, head and legs, which caused neither amputation nor any particular medical problem, nothing major had happened,” Kermanpour told ILNA news agency.

“From my perspective as a physician these were not considered serious injuries and required no special procedures apart from one or two stitches.”

He added that Mr. Mojtaba, who was fasting until nightfall during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, “refused to break his fast and kept fasting until iftar, which itself showed his good health.”

Kermanpour said he was discharged from the hospital at around 2:00 a.m. on March 1, but did not say where he was moved. On May 7, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said he had met the leader and that their meeting lasted two and a half hours.

Three days later, Iranian state TV said the head of Iran’s military central command, Ali Abdollahi, met with the supreme leader who gave “new directives and guidance for the continuation of operations to confront the enemy.”

Iran’s “valiant navy” is “ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said.

Mr. Khamenei sent the defiant message on Saturday (April 18, 2026) as Iran swiftly reimposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Friday (March 20, 2026) the country had dealt its enemies a “dizzying blow” in the war with the United States and Israel, as fresh blasts hit Tehran on the first day of the Persian New Year festival.

He released ​a ⁠message marking ‌the start of Persian ‌New ‌Year ⁠which he ⁠named the year of ​a “resistance economy under ‌national unity and national security.”

Iran-Israel war LIVE

Israel accused Tehran of an “attack on the holy sites” of Jerusalem, after a blast blew a crater in the Old CIty a few hundred metres from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Mr. Khamenei has not appeared in public since being named to succeed his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes at the start of the war that has engulfed the region, and has only issued written statements.

Iranians have “dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow so that he now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense,” Mr. Khamenei said in a written message for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

“At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots — despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins — the enemy has been defeated,” Mr. Khamenei said in the message.

He also said Iran and allied forces in the region were “in no way” behind attacks on Oman and Turkey during the war, instead blaming “deception by the Zionist enemy” in reference to Israel.

The statement of defiance came as Iranians marked a muted Nowruz under the shadow of a war now approaching its fourth week.

AFP journalists heard several blasts in Tehran on Friday (March 20, 2026), from the eastern and northern parts of the city.

In the Iranian capital’s markets, shoppers were out in force buying new clothes and gifts, although sidewalks were less packed than usual for this time of year, with many people having fled north, AFP correspondents said.

‘Decimated’

Huge banners bearing images of Nowruz, which begins officially in the evening, have replaced portraits of the former leader Ali Khamenei, assassinated on the first day of the war on February 28 by Israel.

Israel said it had confirmed that Ismaeil Ahmadi, the chief of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force, was “eliminated” in a strike earlier this week that also killed its top commander.

Elsewhere in Iran, the Israeli army also targeted a northern region around the Caspian Sea, a popular holiday destination that has so far been largely spared attacks.

And in Jerusalem’s Old City, a blast was caused “Iranian missile fragments”, the Israeli military wrote on X, and drew an angry response from Israel’s foreign ministry.

“The Iranian attack on the holy sites sacred to all three religions reveals the madness of the Iranian regime, which claims to be religious,” the foreign ministry wrote on X, calling it an “Iranian gift” for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

On Thursday (March 29, 2026), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that an end to the fighting could be close.

Mr. Netanyahu said Iran was “being decimated” and the war was “ending a lot faster than people think”, though he warned a “ground component” may be needed to dislodge the Iranian government.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said “major concessions — a radical change of stance” would be needed from Iran to secure a lasting political end to the war.