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Secret IRGC backchannel
In mid-May, U.S. negotiators seeking an agreement with Iran to end the war ran into a problem they could not resolve: they could not tell if the people across the table actually spoke for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“they couldn't tell if the people across the table actually spoke for the country's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”
Axios reported that the Trump administration opened a direct secret channel to verify that Iranian negotiators, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and chief diplomat Abbas Araghchi, were speaking on behalf of the IRGC, and that the contact was established through Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
L'Orient Today said the White House then “understood that it needed a parallel communication channel with the Revolutionary Guard leadership,” after Iran delayed its response by 10 days to an agreement that had seemed within reach.
According to L'Orient Today, around May 10 then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called Barzani, who on May 14 hosted in his office in Erbil an IRGC official who brought a secure encrypted phone to establish secure communication.
In that exchange, Barzani asked IRGC Commander Gen. Ahmad Vahidi whether he was in agreement with the Iranian negotiators, and Vahidi said, “I fully support them and that is also the position of the IRGC. We prefer to resolve this crisis through negotiation,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the exchange.
Safety fears and stalled talks
The backchannel episode also highlighted, in Axios’s account, how the U.S. struggled to identify decision-makers in Tehran, even after the U.S. and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding that “quickly collapsed.”
Axios said the White House wanted Barzani to host secret talks in Erbil between high-ranking American and Iranian negotiators, but “these talks never took place,” because the Iranians expressed concerns about their safety.
L'Orient Today reported that the Iranians believed “Israeli intelligence services had many agents or assets in Iraqi Kurdistan and feared the Israelis might attempt to assassinate them in Erbil or on their way to and from the city,” according to Axios.
In parallel, ABC News reported that Iran called for the release of three pilots it says have been detained in Qatar after ejecting from their aircraft following what Tehran described as “enemy anti-aircraft fire” at the start of the U.S.-Iran war.
ABC News also quoted Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Mohammed Al Ansari denying the allegations, saying, “We categorically deny the claims circulating regarding the detention of Iranian pilots,” and adding that Qatar had established contact with the pilots after what he described as “their violation of Qatari airspace.”
Strait of Hormuz as the stake
As the U.S.-Iran conflict continued, the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz remained central to the negotiating impasse described across the coverage.
““This strait will only be opened and closed under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,””
NBC News reported that Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi rejected Trump’s suggestion that the strait would soon be a “territory of the United States,” saying, “This strait will only be opened and closed under Iran’s command.”
Al Jazeera said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote that “We have not yet made a decision to restart negotiations with the United States,” while reiterating remarks he made to Iranian news outlet Shahrara News.
NBC News also described how Trump said at a police academy in Nassau County, New York, that once victory was secured, “pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
Al Jazeera added that mediators from both Qatar and Pakistan were exchanging messages and were in contact with Iran, “but this does not mean negotiations,” while Araghchi said any transit of ships in the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on a political solution being reached.
