JD Vance stresses nuclear discussion in letter to Tehran - The Jerusalem Post

In a letter toIran’s national security chief Mohsen Rezaei, US Vice PresidentJD Vancestressed that negotiations to halt any potential US strikes would "require discussions on the nuclear issue,”Axiosreported on Wednesday, citing a US official.

According to Vance, the letter, which US President Donald Trump was “enthusiastic about,” focused on restarting ceasefire negotiations between the US and Iran. Sources familiar with the matter toldThe Wall Street Journalthat Vance’s letter focused on a possible negotiation framework rather than peace proposals.

The Wall Street Journalwas the first to report the matter, though it is unknown when Vance sent the letter.

Axiosreported that it is the most senior-level outreach from Washington to Tehran in several months, and comes as Trump considers resuming strikes on Iran following the upcoming USmidterm elections.

Rezaei is the secretary of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, and was previously Iran’s longest-serving commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Axiosreported that he has a direct line to Iranian Supreme Leader AyatollahMojtaba Khamenei.

He emerged as an influential, hawkish figure who advocated military operations against the United Arab Emirates, as well as against data centers and other vital infrastructure across the region, theWSJreported.

Rezaei has said that Iran was not open to negotiations with the US unless the regime’s demands were met.

A spokesman for the vice president’s office declined to discuss the matter with theWSJafter the White House referred a request for comment to Vance’s team.

A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said he was not informed of the Vance’s letter, and Rezaei could not be reached for comment, theWSJreported.

Notably, on Tuesday, Rezaei met with Khamenei after holding talks with representatives of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan in the first high-level contact between Iran and the three nations.

Qatari mediatorspresented Iran with a new draft deal on Sunday to end the war with the US and Israel, and Tehran is expected to send a response to the draft by the end of the week, an official briefed on the negotiations said on Wednesday.

The new draft Iran is considering sets a seven-day timeline that addresses both Tehran's and Washington's concerns and lays out daily confidence-building steps each side must take, the official said.

The timeline could begin early next week, and several countries would act as guarantors of the deal, the official added.

Efforts to revisit ceasefire negotiations come as US Central Command (CENTCOM) denies reports from Iranian media that commercial vessels are hitting sea mines while transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a post on X/Twitter on Wednesday, CENTCOM said that “all internationally recognized primary transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz have been cleared of sea mines by US forces and remain so.”

“Thousands of commercial vessels have safely used the transit lanes and continue today,” it concluded.

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