Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday hinted that the public belligerence of Iranian leadership amid the ongoing conflict was not representative of their private remarks in behind-closed-doors negotiations.

The war began in late February, when joint Israel-U.S. forces launched strikes on Iranian leadership, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many military officials. Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has become the new supreme leader, though he has yet to address the public and his medical status is in dispute.

“You have people over there that are saying some of the right things privately,” Rubio told ABC. “Obviously, they’re not going to put it out in press releases, and what they say to you or put out there for the world doesn’t necessarily reflect what they’re saying in our conversations.”

Among the highest ranking public officials rumored to be involved in negotiations is Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohamed Ghalibaf, who has emerged as a hardliner in the Tehran government. Ghalibaf has become a prominent voice of the Iranian government on social media, often responding to Trump's own public pronouncements about the conflict.

Last week, for instance, he warned that Iran would expanding its targeting of Gulf States in the event of an American invasion of Iranian soil.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.