Trump sees 'regime change' in surprise Iran talks

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 23, 2026. [AFP]

President Donald Trump said Monday that "regime change" was underway in Iran as the United States holds peace talks with an unidentified alternative leader.

Trump's surprise announcement to reporters in Florida was short on detail about whom the US side had contacted, but he said it was "not the supreme leader," Mojtaba Khamenei.

He described the unidentified negotiator as "a top person" and "the most respected and the leader."

"We're going to get together today, by probably phone, because it's very hard to find a country -- it's very hard for them to get out, I guess," Trump told reporters before boarding his plane.

Trump was speaking shortly after he backed down from a threat to bombard Iran's power stations within the next day -- an escalation Iran vowed would be met by reprisals at sensitive regional targets, further roiling the US and world economies.

Trump announced on his Truth Social site that he was allowing five days for talks.

But if talks don't produce results, he told reporters later, "we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out."

Venezuela comparison

Trump said there were already "major points of agreement" with the Iranian negotiators.

US conditions, he said, include Iran abandoning any nuclear ambitions and giving up its enriched uranium stockpiles.

"We want no enrichment, but we also want the enriched uranium," he said.

Trump said the unidentified Iranian officials reached out under pressure of his threat to attack power stations.

"They called, I didn't call," he said. "They want to make a deal, and we are very willing to make a deal."

Iran has lost a swath of leadership to US and Israeli bombing.

Mojtaba Khamenei is the son of the previous supreme leader, but he has not been seen in public since the war began and US officials say he may be badly injured.

Trump suggested that he was looking for an arrangement similar to Venezuela, where US forces toppled long-time strongman Nicolas Maduro in January. The country is now run by a US-backed figure.

"Look at Venezuela, how well that's working out," Trump said. "Maybe we find somebody like that in Iran."

'Going very well'

Earlier, Trump told AFP in a brief phone interview that "things are going very well."

Trump has repeatedly said he does not know whom to negotiate with because so many leaders have been killed.

On Monday, he dismissed Khamenei, saying "I don't consider him really the leader."

"But we think we have people that are very representative of the country and will do a good job," he said.

Asked why he wouldn't identify the people talking to the United States, Trump said "because I don't want them to be killed."

Iranian media however said on Monday that there were no negotiations underway towards ending the war.

"There are no talks between Tehran and Washington," said Mehr news agency citing Iran's foreign ministry, adding that Trump's statements were part of a push "to reduce energy prices".

Trump's backtrack on attacking Iranian energy sites came just hours before Wall Street was set to open after brutal selloffs on European and Asian markets and a further climb in the price of oil.

The oil price has posed an increasing political headache for Trump as Americans complain of higher prices at the pump, ahead of crucial midterm elections in November that will determine the make-up of Congress.