Vance Sent Letter to Iran's Rezaei to Revive Talks, WSJ Reports. Trump Says It Was About Medical Supplies

Vice President JD Vance has sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in an effort to restart stalled U.S.-Iran negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, Oct. 28. The paper cited American officials and people familiar with the discussions.

Rezaei is a former IRGC commander who led the Guards from 1981 to 1997. He is regarded as one of Tehran's most influential hardliners and a close ally of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Two accounts of who ordered it

One person familiar with the matter told the Journal the letter went out at Trump's direction and that the president knew about it.

Trump gave a different account to reporters Wednesday before traveling to a rally in Ohio. Asked whether he had told Vance to start peace talks, he answered: "No. They need help with medical supplies and various things."

"He asked me what I thought," Trump said. "I said, if you want to do that, that's okay. Basically, it's getting supplies in to help people that are not well."

Neither government has confirmed the exchange. A Vance spokesperson declined to comment, and the White House sent questions to the vice president's office. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said he had no information about the outreach. Rezaei and the Supreme National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment.

What the letter is meant to do

According to the Journal, the aim is to find out whether the two sides share enough common ground to talk Trump out of ordering a brief, intense military campaign in the coming weeks. The Journal reported Tuesday that Trump is weighing such strikes after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

A person familiar with the exchanges told the Journal that the letter and follow-up contacts deal with a possible framework for negotiations, not specific terms. No detailed peace proposal has come out of them.

Trump has declined to rule out strikes after the midterms. "Anything's possible," he said, according to Fox News.

The positions on each side

The gap between Washington and Tehran has not moved publicly. Iran says the U.S. must lift its blockade of Iranian ports before any talks can begin. Rezaei said last week that Iran will not negotiate until its core demands are met.

Washington wants nuclear concessions. In an interview with Reuters earlier this month, Vance said Iran must take verifiable steps to reduce its uranium enrichment capacity before the U.S. would agree to end the war. He said assurances about future limits would not be enough.

The war began in February with Trump's launch of "Operation Epic Fury." Trump later named Vance lead negotiator, and the vice president traveled abroad twice to meet Iranian counterparts. A memorandum of understanding reached in June later collapsed.

The Journal also reported that Vance has publicly backed the war but privately expressed reservations about prolonging it, and that before the February launch he argued for more diplomacy. That claim comes from the Journal's sourcing. Vance's office declined to comment.

Tehran signals movement, with conditions

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday called Khamenei's directive to end the "neither war nor peace" situation an important step in shaping Iran's future, according to the state news agency IRNA. Khamenei had told Rezaei in a meeting Tuesday that the country stood at a "crossroads," Iran's Mehr News Agency reported. Iran's stated conditions for ending the war were reiterated at that meeting.

It is not clear whether that directive has any connection to the Vance letter. No source has linked the two.

The regional picture

The diplomacy runs alongside escalation elsewhere. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh warned Wednesday of possible attacks on Saudi airports and travel disruptions, citing Houthi missile and drone strikes. The embassy said the Iranian-supported Houthis have attacked civilian airports and other critical infrastructure, causing civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions.

"The hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area," the embassy said. The State Department ordered nonemergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia on Oct. 23.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Trump on Wednesday. The Turkish presidency said Erdogan told Trump that the Makkah Joint Defense Alliance is following developments in the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen and wants a diplomatic resolution.

The Nov. 3 midterms are six days away. Trump has not ruled out a strike after them. He has also not said whether he will approve a diplomatic track beyond what he calls medical-supply help, or whether Rezaei will answer Vance's letter.

Whether Tehran will move on its blockade demand and Washington on its enrichment demand before the strike window opens remains to be seen.