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Iran supreme leader involved in talks to end the war, says Trump

Donald Trump said Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is involved in talks to end the war and that he would “like to meet him”.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since the Iran war began, and has only addressed the nation through written statements read out by television anchors. US officials have claimed Khamenei was incapacitated or undergoing treatment for severe injuries sustained in the same bombing that killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.

“He’s involved. Absolutely,” the US president told the New York Post. “Yeah, I think they have a lot of respect for him.”

When asked about Khamenei’s condition, Trump said: “I don’t know, I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him.”

He added: “If you believe the stories is, you know, missing a lot of different parts.”

Trump was asked whether he would meet with Khamenei, he replied: “Yeah, I’d like to meet him. I’d like to meet everybody … We probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out.”

Key events

Trump: Iran has agreed to have no nuclear weapon

Commenting on Iran’s nuclear programme, Trump claimed Tehran has agreed to not obtain a nuclear weapon.

He told the New York Post: “We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon, and they’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”

When pressed further, he said: “Oh, yeah, they’ve agreed to that. I mean, they can change their mind, but that was one of the things they had to agree. They’ve agreed to that. That was the big thing.”

There was no immediate comment from Iran, but the nuclear issue has long remained a major bone of contention in talks between Tehran and Washington.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing yesterday that Iran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear programme that it had refused to discuss even a month ago. You can read more on that here:

Iran supreme leader involved in talks to end the war, says Trump

Donald Trump said Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is involved in talks to end the war and that he would “like to meet him”.

“He’s involved. Absolutely,” the US president told the New York Post. “Yeah, I think they have a lot of respect for him.”

When asked about Khamenei’s condition, Trump said: “I don’t know, I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him.”

He added: “If you believe the stories is, you know, missing a lot of different parts.”

Opening summary: Trump claims Iran agreed to no nuclear weapon and supreme leader involved in talks

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

Donald Trump has claimed Iran has agreed it will not have a nuclear weapon and that the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is involved in negotiations with the US.

The bold claims were made during an interview on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast published this morning, as violence erupted in the Gulf once again after the US and Iran exchanged a series of strikes.

A man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran’ supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The US president also suggested that he might meet Khamenei “at some point” and that he would “like to meet him”. US officials have long claimed Khamenei sustained serious injuries in the same bombing that killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.

Trump’s remarks follow comments made by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, at a congressional hearing yesterday that there were indications Khamenei was taking a bigger part in peace talks despite not being seen publicly since the war began on 28 February. Rubio will appear before the House committee on foreign affairs for another hearing today.

Also today:

One person was killed and several people were injured in an Iranian drone attack that targeted Kuwait’s airport, according to authorities and state media. Flights were suspended this morning but some later resumed after the country’s civil aviation authority said it assessed the damage at the airport.
The attack came hours after US forces fired a Hellfire missile to disable a tanker attempting to break through the American blockade of the strait of Hormuz, and later said they repelled Iranian reprisal attacks in the region and attacked sites on Iran’s Qeshm Island.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it attacked the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain with missiles and drones in response to the strike on Qeshm, a claim the US military’s Central Command (Centcom) denied.
Centcom said two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait “fell short or broke apart enroute”, and that three missiles targeting Bahrain were intercepted by US and Bahrain.
US forces also said they shot down three one-way attack drones “launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters” but gave no further details.

In Lebanon:

Israel kept up strikes on southern Lebanon, pressing its campaign against Hezbollah a day after Donald Trump asked Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Beirut to avert further escalation in the three-month-old war. Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire hit south Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, Lebanese state media reported. Israel’s military ordered residents of the city of Nabatieh, a major Hezbollah stronghold, to leave ahead of strikes.
Lebanon’s government has said it would seek a full ceasefire in a new round of talks with Israeli officials in Washington that began on Tuesday, the latest in a series of face-to-face meetings Beirut has attended despite Hezbollah objections.
Hezbollah said it fired artillery shells at Israeli troops near Beaufort and targeted Israeli military vehicles south of Nabatieh on Tuesday. It has not announced cross-border attacks since Monday.