'We have to stop killing Iranian leaders to know who we are negotiating with': Trump at Georgia rally

US President Donald Trump has said the killing of Iranian leaders must stop so that the United States can determine who it is negotiating with. At the same time, he reiterated his firm position that Iran must never be allowed to build a nuclear weapon. Turkiye-based Anadolu Agency reported the remarks.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Georgia on Saturday (October 25), Trump said he has to stop killing Iranian leaders because he needs to understand who the United States is talking to. The thrust of his remarks was that a diplomatic process cannot move forward without knowing who sits across the negotiating table.

Repeating his earlier claims about the destruction of Iran's military strength and leadership at US hands, Trump said they have no aircraft, no ships, nothing, and no leaders either. In his words, the first line of leaders is gone, and the second line of leaders is gone too.

The remarks underline the two-sided nature of Trump's message on Iran. On the one hand, he argues for stopping leadership killings as a condition for talks; on the other, he claims credit for destroying Iran's leadership and military capability.

In his speech, Trump also defended his 2018 decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. That agreement had been signed during the tenure of then US President Barack Obama.

Claiming the deal was scrapped at a critical moment to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Trump said he had cancelled one of the worst deals in history — Barack Hussein Obama's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), widely known as the Iran nuclear deal, which he described as a path for Iran to build a nuclear weapon. He said that, fortunately, he had cancelled it at exactly the right time.

Referring to 'Operation Midnight Hammer' carried out in 2025 and 'Operation Epic Fury' conducted from February to May this year, Trump said those operations had reduced Iran's uranium enrichment capability to dust.

The US president added that Iran has been defeated militarily, financially and in other respects. In his words, it must be ensured that they never get their hands on a nuclear weapon again.

Delivered from a campaign rally stage, the speech brought his administration's hardline position on Iran to the fore once again. He has repeatedly sent the message of no concessions on the nuclear question, and this time was no exception.

What added a new dimension this time was the reference to negotiations. By hinting at talks conditional on stopping leadership killings, Trump suggested that a leadership capable of talking to Washington needs to survive in Tehran — even though he himself has claimed to have destroyed that leadership.

It remains to be seen whether, after these remarks, any new diplomatic momentum emerges in Washington-Tehran relations, or whether the cycle of tension and exchanges of statements between the two sides simply continues.