Vice President JD Vance is weighing direct talks with a top Iranian security official as President Donald Trump empowers him to lead renewed negotiations aimed at ending the months-long conflict, according to a Wednesday report. The Wall Street Journal reported that Vance is considering a face-to-face meeting with Mohsen Rezaei, the hard-line secretary of Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council and a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). No meeting has been scheduled, and discussions remain preliminary as Washington and Tehran continue communicating through regional intermediaries.
Trump has recently told senior aides and foreign counterparts that he is open to Vance restarting negotiations and has authorized the vice president to take a leading role in the diplomatic effort. Vance has consequently assumed a more prominent role than Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have also been involved in negotiations with Tehran. Vance sent Rezaei a letter in October requesting a meeting. The prospective negotiations follow Vance’s earlier diplomatic effort in June, which produced a memorandum of understanding that temporarily halted fighting but failed to secure Iranian commitments to restrict its nuclear program or relinquish control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement subsequently unraveled as Iranian forces resumed attacks on commercial vessels in the strategic waterway.
