Vice President JD Vance is engaging one of Iran’s most powerful hard-liners to revive peace negotiations even as President Trump threatens to restart the war after next week’s midterm elections, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.
Vance is testing whether Tehran and Washington could find enough common ground to persuade Trump not to give a final order for a short, intense attack on Iran in the coming weeks. Vance has openly supported the Iran war but privately expressed reservations about prolonging it. Trump later picked Vance as the lead negotiator, and the vice president flew abroad twice to meet with Iranian counterparts in search of a final agreement to end the conflict. A Vance spokesman declined to discuss the talks. The White House referred a request for comment to the vice president’s team. Rezaei and the Supreme National Security Council couldn’t be reached for comment.
Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, and previously Iran’s longest-serving commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the people. The letter was sent at Trump’s direction, one person said, and Trump is aware of the outreach. Trump said last week 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. Vance’s letter and subsequent discussions between U.S. and Iranian officials haven’t included specifics for a peace proposal, but instead focused on a possible framework for negotiations, said a person familiar with the matter. Rezaei said last week that Iran wouldn’t negotiate with Washington until specific core demands were met. He argued for more robust diplomacy before Trump launched “Operation Epic Fury” in February. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said he had no information on the Vance outreach.
On social media, 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.”
