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U.S. Vice President JD Vance is considering face-to-face talks with Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as he emerges as Washington’s lead negotiator to end the war, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
U.S. President Donald Trump has told top aides and foreign counterparts in recent days that he is open to Vance restarting talks with Iran and has empowered him to negotiate, the officials said.
U.S. officials stressed that discussions about a direct meeting remain preliminary, with no date set, though the two sides are communicating through mediators and allies about next steps.
Vance sent Rezaei a letter in October requesting a meeting, the WSJ reported.
A direct meeting would be unusual and shows how far Vance is willing to go to end the war, according to the report. Vance has recently taken a more active role in Iran diplomacy than special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are also handling Russia-Ukraine talks, U.S. officials said.
Leading the talks could make Vance the face of another failed round if Iran refuses major concessions, some officials said, or position him as the figure who ended an unpopular war.
Vance has publicly blamed the war for Republicans’ midterm losses.
Doha has been considered as a possible venue if Vance and Iranian officials agree to meet, people familiar with the discussions told the WSJ.
Vance met Qatar’s prime minister on Monday before both met Trump.
Trump has privately criticized the June memorandum of understanding Vance helped negotiate, questioning whether it gave Iran time to regroup and earn oil revenue before the U.S. naval blockade, two officials told the newspaper.
A White House official denied Trump had second thoughts, saying negotiators acted in good faith.
Vance’s last talks with Iran, in Switzerland in June, produced a pause in fighting and the memorandum but no Iranian commitments to limit its nuclear program or give up control over Hormuz shipping.
Mediators have proposed immediate confidence-building steps, including the U.S. pulling its aircraft carriers back far enough to reduce the risk of major strikes and easing the blockade on Iranian ports, in exchange for Iran allowing 25 tankers to cross the Strait of Hormuz, Middle East officials said.
Iran wants the U.S. to lift the blockade, release frozen assets and ease oil sanctions as preconditions for talks, according to people familiar with its thinking.
"The Iranian demands are totally unrealistic. We expect that could change, and if it does, we’ll be prepared for diplomacy," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
Rezaei has escalated his rhetoric amid rumors of a meeting, dismissing "imaginary talks" and insisting Iran "won’t remove even a single particle of enriched nuclear material from the country."
The parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Vance’s interlocutor in Islamabad, was sidelined after conciliatory moves.
Some Middle East officials worry that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander-in-chief Ahmad Vahidi holds more sway than Rezaei and could undermine talks, while Iranian diplomats privately doubt a deal is within reach, fearing Trump may still attack.
"At this point, the economic campaign and the pressure and the devastation that our economic campaign is having on the Iranian regime is working so well that the president really doesn’t have any need to conduct major combat operations," Rubio said at a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris.
Rubio and new White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller support maintaining pressure and waiting for Tehran to fold, two officials told WSJ.
"Iran, I hope we’re going to be able to make a deal with them," Trump said Monday, adding that another aircraft carrier was moving into the region and the U.S. was "loaded up to the gills" if necessary.
A White House official said only Trump knows his next move, as Vance's possible talks with Rezaei take shape.
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