US-Iran War: Even as the bombs fall and official denials mount, a thin diplomatic thread appears to have quietly slipped between Washington DC and Tehran. A communication channel between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has reportedly been reactivated in recent days, according to an Axios report citing a US official and another official with direct knowledge of the matter.
The development, if confirmed, however fragile and contested, represents the first point of contact between the two sides since the US-Iran war broke out more than a fortnight ago.
What did the news say? Who sent them first?
According to an Axios report citing a US official and an official familiar with the exchanges, it was Araghchi who initiated the contact and sent text messages to Steve Witkoff that focused on ending the war.
That account contradicts an earlier report by Drop Site News published Monday that claimed Steve Witkoff was the one making the call and that Iranian officials suggested Araghchi was simply ignoring the White House envoy.
A US official flatly rejected Araghchi’s version of events, saying it was Iran’s foreign minister who initiated the contact, although Washington DC insisted it was “not talking” with Iran in any formal sense.
Araghchi denies contact; Washington DC says he’s lying
Araghchi quickly moved to deny the Axios report after it was published, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “My last contact with Witkoff was prior to his employer’s decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military strike on Iran. Any claim to the contrary appears to be solely aimed at deceiving the oil traders and the public.”
When asked about this statement by Axios, a US official did not mince words: Iran’s foreign minister lied and he was the first to reach out.
Trump acknowledges the negotiations, but questions Iran’s self-governance
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Monday, confirmed that Iran had communicated with the US side, while questioning whether those talking were empowered to reach any binding agreement.
“They want to make a deal. They’re talking to our people … we have people who want to negotiate, (but) we have no idea who they are,” Trump said.
Despite expressing skepticism about Tehran’s readiness to strike a deal, Trump has left the door open. “Sometimes good things come out of it,” he noted.
The US president also pointed to the chaos inside Iran’s leadership structure, noting that many senior officials had been killed and that the country’s newly installed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had not been seen in public and may, he speculated, be dead.
Washington’s Position: No Deal From Weakness
A senior US official sought to draw a clear line around what a potential deal might look like. Iran’s insistence on “reparations” as a precondition was immediately rejected. What Trump would be interested in, the official said, was a framework that would allow Iran to “integrate with the rest of the world and make money from its oil.”
“The president is always open to a deal. But he’s not negotiating from a position of weakness. He’s not backing down from the reasons why this conflict started,” the official said.
Tehran’s public stance: No ceasefire without guarantees
For their part, Iranian officials have publicly claimed in recent days that no ceasefire talks are underway with the Trump administration.
Their position is that a temporary pause in the fighting is unacceptable – a brief truce, they argue, would only give Washington DC and Tel Aviv an opportunity to regroup and strike again.
Tehran says it wants instead a permanent settlement with credible guarantees of durability.
Who is actually speaking for Iran right now?
One complicating factor hanging over all this is the fragmented state of Iranian decision-making. American officials do not believe Araghchi has the authority to commit to anything. Before the war, he was not considered a central power broker; this rating has not changed.
Yet Araghchi appears to be working in coordination with Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who effectively assumed the role of civilian leader after the assassination of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This coordination provides the Secretary of State with a degree of institutional support, although his formal powers remain limited.
For the US side, Araghchi remains the preferred point of contact for a clear reason: they have a working relationship with him built before the conflict, and – unlike many of his colleagues – he is still alive.
