US vice president JD Vance has reportedly reached out to Iran’s “most powerful hardliners” as President Donald Trump weighs the possibility of resuming military action against Iran following next week’s midterm elections.
However, both Trump and Rezaei have shown little interest in negotiations. A spokesman for Vance declined to comment on the talks, while the White House referred questions to the vice president’s team.
Vance sent a letter, at Trump’s direction, to Mohsen Rezaei, a senior figure in Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a former longtime commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Vance’s letter and subsequent exchanges between US and Iranian officials have not included specifics for a peace proposal, but have instead focused on establishing a possible framework for negotiations, according to a person familiar with the matter cited in the report. Last week, the US President said the administration wasn’t talking with the Iranians, and hinted at forthcoming strikes. “We’re not negotiating with them, we are going to have something one way or another, it’ll happen soon,” he said. Some US officials believe that talking to Iranian hard-liners, who have amassed power in Tehran since the US and Israel attacks killed regime leaders at the war’s outset, might yield a better diplomatic result, according to WSJ. Iran’s foreign ministry said it had no information about Vance’s outreach, and Rezaei and the Supreme National Security Council could not be reached for comment, according to WSJ.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “While our Brave Armed Forces are fully prepared to defend the Homeland, Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed.”
