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Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has flatly denied reports that he recently re-established communication with US envoy Steve Witkoff, calling the claims an attempt to manipulate oil traders as crude prices top $100 a barrel amid the war between the US-Israel coalition and Iran.
"My last contact with Mr. Witkoff was prior to his employer's decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran," Araghchi wrote on X. "Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public."
The denial came within hours of an Axios report citing a US official and a separate source as saying the two had exchanged text messages in recent days, the first known direct contact since the war began on February 28. After Araghchi's denial, the US official told Axios that the Iranian foreign minister was lying and had initiated the contact himself.
Araghchi and Witkoff are not strangers. Less than 48 hours before the US-Israeli strikes began on Feb. 28, Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner sat across from Araghchi in Geneva for a third round of Omani-mediated nuclear talks.
Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who mediated the session, said afterward that the talks had shown "significant progress." Trump, however, said he was "not happy" with the pace of negotiations.
Two days later, the US and Israel launched nearly 900 strikes in 12 hours. The initial wave killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other officials, and also killed about 170 people when a missile struck a girls' school near a naval base in Minab.
Iran responded with waves of missiles and drones targeting US bases across the Middle East and Israeli population centers. Mojtaba Khamenei, the late supreme leader's son, was elected on March 8 as his successor.
US officials do not consider Araghchi a key decision-maker in wartime Iran but see him as a useful interlocutor because of their pre-existing relationship, according to Axios.
He is believed to be coordinating with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who has emerged as Iran's de facto civilian leader since Khamenei's assassination.
Araghchi's pointed reference to oil traders was not idle rhetoric. Any signal of renewed diplomacy between Washington and Tehran carries immediate market consequences. Brent crude topped $106 a barrel on Sunday, up more than 40 percent since the war began, driven largely by Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies normally transit.
More than 30 countries have agreed to release 400 million barrels from strategic reserves to offset the disruption, but prices have remained stubbornly high. Brent closed at $100.21 on Monday, falling after Trump called on allies to help safeguard tanker traffic, though no country has publicly committed to deploying naval escorts.
Iranian officials have said publicly in recent days that they are not interested in a temporary truce. Tehran wants guarantees that any peace deal will be permanent, fearing a ceasefire would simply allow the US and Israel to regroup and strike again.
By denying the Axios report, Araghchi appeared determined to prevent markets from interpreting the story as a sign that backdoor talks, and the prospect of de-escalation, were underway.
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