Trump and Erdogan tried to establish a secret channel with Iran, but it failed because Ayatollah Khamenei is in hiding

Amid the exchange of missile strikes between Israel and Iran, President Donald Trump secretly pushed for a high-level meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Istanbul, with the support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, the effort was thwarted when Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, currently in hiding for fear of an attempt on his life, could not be reached to give his final approval.

The diplomatic operation, White House sources and U.S. officials confirmed to Axios, contemplated the possibility of President Trump himself attending the meeting to negotiate with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian if that would help reach a new nuclear deal.

In fact, the president even offered to send Vice President J.D. Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff, but it all fell apart in the face of the impossibility of getting the green light from Tehran.

The attempt to set up a meeting with Iran revealed that Washington was determined to exhaust diplomatic means to avoid a direct military intervention, although now, according to those close to it, the White House is less optimistic.

In fact, the president publicly confirmed that he will make a decision on the United States’ involvement in the conflict in a maximum of two weeks.

In the meantime, Iran has made it clear that it will not negotiate directly with the United States as long as Israeli attacks, which have not ceased since the Iranian regime began its retaliation, persist.

Although negotiations appear stalled, Turkey again offered to mediate: Erdoğan met Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and insisted on facilitating a direct dialogue with the U.S.

In parallel, six B-2 bombers took off from Missouri heading west, ready to participate in an eventual strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Following the dispatch, Trump himself warned that Israel has a "limited" capability to destroy Fordow, one of the most protected plants in Iran's nuclear program, and hinted that U.S. involvement could be decisive in preventing the theocracy from obtaining its long-desired nuclear arsenal

"Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. In the post, he additionally called to evacuate Tehran, a city with more than 10 million inhabitants.

The White House insisted that there was no direct correlation between the message and the collapse of negotiations between Tehran and Washington, but the message hints at Trump's willingness to, above all, avoid more unnecessary deaths in the event of American participation in the war.