{"id":260630,"date":"2026-08-22T22:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260630\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T22:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:51:14","slug":"slain-ayatollah-wanted-peace-talks-with-us-iranian-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260630\/","title":{"rendered":"Slain Ayatollah wanted peace talks with US, Iranian president says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was backing a diplomatic solution to end the Islamic Republic\u2019s years-long feud with the United States, Iran\u2019s president said Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The new supreme leader, son Mojtaba Khamenei, is said to be even more extreme than his 86-year-old father who was killed on Feb. 28 by joint US and Israeli strikes \u2014 and the adversaries remain locked in a bitter standoff with little progress to speak of.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.67871094;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40467868\" width=\"400\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/iranian-leader-press-office-handout-138227492.jpg\" alt=\"ayatollah\" class=\"wp-image-40467868\"\/>Ali Khamenei, 86, was killed in a Feb. 28 strike on Tehran. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was with the martyred Supreme Leader, and he publicly announced in his speeches that we must get out of this situation of neither war nor peace,\u201d Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith strength, but with logic, we can sit down and resolve our problems,\u201d he added, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/Slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was backing a diplomatic solution to end the Islamic Republic\u2019s years-long feud with the United States, Iran\u2019s president said Saturday. The new supreme leader, son Mojtaba Khamenei, is said to be even more extreme than his father, who was killed on Feb. 28 by joint US and Israeli strikes -- and the adversaries remain locked in a bitter standoff with little progress to speak of. \u201cI was with the martyred Supreme Leader, and he publicly announced in his speeches that we must get out of this situation of neither war nor peace,\u201d Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said. \u201cWith strength, but with logic, we can sit down and resolve our problems,\u201d he added, according to Iran International. Pezeshkian has been defending the diplomatic route out of war, with negotiations with the US on life support since the 60-day temporary cease-fire between the two countries expired Monday without a peace agreement. His position has been unpopular within the regime, Pezeshkian has been accused of capitulating for saying Tehran should negotiate an end to the war now from a \u201cposition of strength\u201d -- as Washington prepares to unleash a new set of crippling sanctions next week that could throw Iran\u2019s economy even further into a tailspin. \u201cIt is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity,\u201d Pezeshkian said in public remarks Friday. \u201cWhat do you mean when you say we should end the war now? Did we start the war?\u201d Iran lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian shot back on X Saturday. \u201cShould we beg [Donald] Trump and [Benjamin] Netanyahu to end the war and not attack us? Wouldn\u2019t sending a signal of weakness make the enemy bolder?\u201d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Iran International<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Pezeshkian has been defending the diplomatic route out of war, with negotiations with the US on life support since the 60-day temporary cease-fire between the two countries expired Monday without a peace agreement.<\/p>\n<p>His position has been unpopular within the regime, Pezeshkian has been accused of capitulating for saying Tehran should negotiate an end to the war now from a \u201cposition of strength\u201d \u2014 as Washington prepares to unleash a new set of crippling sanctions next week that could throw Iran\u2019s economy even further into a tailspin.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40467685\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/no-access-israel-media-persian-137907055.jpg\" alt=\"Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian giving a speech.\" class=\"wp-image-40467685\"\/>Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has pushed to resume diplomacy with the United States. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity,\u201d Pezeshkian said in public remarks Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you mean when you say we should end the war now? Did we start the war?\u201d Iran lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian shot back on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nabaviantwt\/status\/2091074802400604268\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould we beg [Donald] Trump and [Benjamin] Netanyahu to end the war and not attack us? Wouldn\u2019t sending a signal of weakness make the enemy bolder?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was backing a diplomatic solution to end the Islamic Republic\u2019s years-long feud with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[327,1144,989,34,36,82],"class_list":["post-260630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-ayatollah-khamenei","tag-diplomacy","tag-iran","tag-war","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117141614832441614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}