Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s “supreme leader,” reportedly did not attend planned negotiations with the U.S. in Turkey the previous week and subsequently remained secluded while the U.S. military executed strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.

President Trump was reportedly collaborating with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to facilitate high-level discussions between U.S. and Iranian representatives in Istanbul the previous week.

Trump informed Erdoğan of his willingness to send Vice President JD Vance and White House envoy Steve Witkoff, even offering to personally travel to Turkey to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to negotiate a diplomatic resolution to the Israel-Iran conflict and a nuclear agreement, according to three U.S. officials and an informed source.

Prior to his conversation with Erdoğan, Trump reportedly received “signals” via Iranian intermediaries suggesting their interest in engaging in talks, according to a White House official who spoke with Axios.

Erdoğan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan conveyed Trump’s proposal to Pezeshkian and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Pezeshkian and Araghchi attempted to contact Khamenei for approval but were unable to reach him for several hours. Sources informed Axios that the Iranian officials then told their Turkish counterparts that they could not secure Khamenei’s consent for the meeting, leading the Turkish side to inform the U.S. that the meeting was cancelled.

Reportedly, Khamenei is currently sheltering in a bunker and has cut off all electronic communication with his commanders, issuing orders solely through a trusted aide to safeguard his location due to concerns about potential assassination attempts.

In a Saturday night address from the White House, Trump announced that the U.S. military had “carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan.” Days before, he hinted that the U.S. was aware of Khamenei’s whereabouts.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump posted the previous week. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

The Iranian leader, a frequent user of social media platform X, has been inactive on the platform since before the U.S. strikes.

According to Lisa Daftari, an Iran expert and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, Iran was never serious about diplomacy even if Khamenei were involved.

“Diplomacy was never going to work with a regime like Iran’s – a regime whose entire ideology is built on ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’,” Daftari told Fox News Digital. “The mullahs were never serious about compromise or peace.”

Daftari stated that “Trump explored every avenue, including back-channel diplomacy, but when the Supreme Leader went dark, it confirmed what we’ve always known: This is a duplicitous, murderous regime that isn’t interested in dialogue.”

Daftari also said, “Trump made the right decision to act with limited, precise military strikes” to send “a clear message: If the red line was Iran getting nuclear weapons, then force – targeted and decisive – was the only responsible conclusion.”