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A elder White House authoritative said Sunday (March 1, 2026) that Iran's “new imaginable leadership” has suggested it is unfastened to talks with the United States aft American and Israeli forces launched a large onslaught against Tehran, sidesplitting the country's ultimate leader and different high-ranking officials.
The White House official, who spoke connected information of anonymity to sermon interior medication deliberations, said President Donald Trump says helium is “eventually” consenting to talk, but for present the subject cognition “continues unabated.” The authoritative did not accidental who the imaginable caller Iranian leaders are oregon however they made their alleged willingness to speech known.
Iran-Israel conflict updates connected March 1, 2026
Mr. Trump told The Atlantic, successful an interrogation Sunday (March 1, 2026), that helium planned to talk with Iran's caller leadership.
“They privation to talk, and I person agreed to talk, truthful I volition beryllium talking to them,” helium said, declining remark connected the timing.
The imaginable aboriginal diplomatic opening comes arsenic caller details are emerging astir the elaborate readying that went into the U.S.-Israeli strikes and immoderate of the targets that were deed successful Iran.
U.S. Central Command said that B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran's ballistic rocket facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. That mirrors the attack that the subject took successful June, erstwhile Trump agreed to deploy B-2 bombers to onslaught 3 cardinal Iranian atomic sites.
Mr. Trump claimed successful his State of the Union code past week that Iran had been gathering ballistic missiles that could scope the US homeland — a justification helium repeated again Saturday arsenic helium announced that the bombardment of Iran was underway.
Iran has not acknowledged that it is gathering oregon seeking to physique intercontinental ballistic missiles. The US Defence Intelligence Agency, however, said successful an unclassified study past twelvemonth that Iran could make a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic rocket by 2035 “should Tehran determine to prosecute the capability.” Before the attacks, the CIA had for months tracked the movements of elder Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a idiosyncratic acquainted with the operation.
The quality was shared with Israeli officials, and the timing of the strikes was adjusted successful portion due to the fact that of that accusation astir the Iranian leaders' location, according to the person, who was not authorised to remark publically and spoke connected information of anonymity.
The quality sharing betwixt US and Israel reflects the mentation that went into the strikes, which continued for a 2nd time Sunday aft Khamenei's sidesplitting threw the aboriginal of the Islamic Republic into uncertainty and raised the hazard of escalating determination conflict.
The New York Times earlier reported astir the CIA's efforts earlier the Israeli-US strikes.
Sen. Tom Cotton, president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined to sermon details Sunday erstwhile asked connected CBS' “Face the Nation” astir quality sharing with Israel. But helium said tracking the movements of the ultimate person and the heads of different adversarial nations “is evidently 1 of the highest priorities of our quality community.” “Clearly, this cognition is driven by quality collected by Israel and the United States that has erstwhile again proven that our nations person capabilities that nary different federation connected Earth has,” said Cotton, R-Ark.
The U.S. regularly shares quality with allies including Israel. Those partnerships, and the accuracy of the quality they yield, is often captious not lone to the occurrence of a subject cognition but besides to the public's enactment for it.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the elder Democrat connected the committee, told The Associated Press that historically, “our moving narration with the Mossad and Israel is truly strong.” Mossad is the Israeli spy agency.
Mr. Warner said helium has superior concerns astir the justification for the strikes, Trump's semipermanent plans for the struggle and the risks that U.S. work members volition face. The subject announced Sunday (March 1, 2026) that 3 American troops had been killed and 5 were earnestly wounded successful the Iran operation.
“No tears volition beryllium shed implicit their enactment being eliminated but ever the question is: OK, what next?” Mr. Warner said.
