A day after strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and drew the region into war, US President Donald Trump told The Atlantic that the country's new leadership wants to talk with him and that he plans to do so.

"They want to talk, and I've agreed to that, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have done what was very practical and easy to do earlier. They waited too long," Trump said in a phone interview with the outlet from his Mar-a-Lago club at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time.

When asked whether his conversation with the Iranians would take place today or tomorrow, Trump replied: "I can't tell you that."

He stated that some of the Iranians who had participated in negotiations in recent weeks are no longer alive.

"Most of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because it was a very big success. They should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should have done it sooner. They played it too cute," the US president told the outlet's journalist.