The Trump administration is in talks with Iran’s parliament speaker to try to end the war, according to a new report.

Mohammad ⁠Bagher Ghalibaf, who threatened mass retaliation against energy facilities across the Middle East in the face of President Trump’s ultimatum over the weekend, is the “top person” speaking with the US whom the president mentioned on Monday, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The president stressed that the person leading the talks in Iran was not the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to make a public appearance and is believed to be injured and in hiding.

Trump said he paused his plan to attack Iran’s power plants by Monday night after the US began engaging in talks with a high level regime official who he claimed was effectively in charge of the Islamic Republic.

“A top person,” Trump told reporters, describing the individual the US was allegedly in talks with.

“Don’t forget: We’ve wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two and largely phase three. But we’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader, you know it’s a little tough, they’ve wiped out – we’ve wiped out everybody,” he added.

Iran has denied that any members of its leadership are currently in talks with the Trump administration. 

An Israeli official, however, said Ghalibaf was in touch with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Axios reported. 

Mediators are currently working to convene a meeting between the trio in Islamabad, with Vice President Vance possibly leading the US delegation, according to Axios. 

Others with knowledge of the talks suggested there were not direct communications between Tehran and Washington yet, with Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey serving as in-betweeners. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has been leading the mediation efforts over the past 48 hours, speaking with US, Iranian, European and Middle Eastern leaders on efforts to end the war, according to Ankara. 

Trump had warned that Iran had only 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or their power plants would be “obliterated” by the US. 

Trump’s threats were met in kind by Ghalibaf, who said his nation would make no concessions as he threatened to attack US critical infrastructure and energy facilities across the Middle East if the president made good on his threats. 

Ghalibaf 64, most recently warned that along with US military bases, financial institutions linked to the American armed forces could be “considered legitimate targets.”

Ghalibaf, a former air force commander and mayor of Tehran, has served as the current speaker of parliament since 2020, often leading lawmakers with chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” 

He is the key leader of Iran’s Principlist factions that often clashed with the country’s reformist faction led by the slain Ali Larijani, who was seen as the de facto leader of the Islamic republic after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death at the start of the war. 

Experts believed that as Larijani’s main political rival, Ghalibaf was perfectly poised to take control of Iran given his strong ties with Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Ghalibaf is widely seen as the man serving as a link among Mojtaba, the state bureaucracy, and the IRGC.

Iran maintains that Mojtaba is the de facto ruler of the Islamic state, but his absence from the public has stirred doubts as to whether he’s even alive.

Trump acknowledged the doubts himself on Monday, saying the US has yet to hear directly from the new supreme leader.

“We have not heard from the son,” Trump told reporters. “We don’t know if he’s living.”

“[Ali] Khamenei was killed,” the president said. “Khamenei’s son is unavailable. Nobody knows what happened to him. I can say they haven’t seen him there either. Something is going on with him. But regardless, I don’t consider him really the leader, but they do have some leaders left.”