Esmaeil Baqaei

On 28 July 2026, Baqaei said Iran was conducting no negotiations with the United States, allowing only that mediators might be relaying messages, directly contradicting Trump's claim to Axios of deep conversations under way. Washington's actual moves that week stayed limited to what was already in train, a bombing pause and a casualty-category rename, not a new diplomatic step.

The denial fits a pattern running back to March, when Baqaei told reporters messages were being conveyed via friendly countries while denying direct talks. As the ministry's spokesman, his repeated denials widen rather than narrow the public gap between Washington and Tehran's own accounts of where, if anywhere, talks stand.

Baqaei acknowledged on 7 May 2026 that Iran had received the US memorandum via Pakistan and was still considering it, declining to characterise the text. On 12 June, after Trump announced a breakthrough, he told IRNA that reports of a finalised deal were merely speculation and Tehran had not yet made a final decision.

The pattern held through the 1 July Doha round, where he ruled out any imminent meeting even as Qatar tied Iran's frozen $6bn to progress. Back-channel contact through Pakistan and Qatar continues while Baqaei's public language stays deliberately non-committal, giving Iran's domestic hardliners no negotiation to disown.

On 23 June 2026, Baqaei publicly ruled out IAEA inspectors entering any of Iran's war-damaged nuclear sites, directly contradicting General Licence X's own recital that Iran had agreed to readmit them. He conditioned any opening of nuclear sub-talks on Washington delivering a ceasefire on every front, Lebanon included.

That position built on his 19 April declaration that enriched uranium is 'as sacred as Iranian soil' and that transfer to the United States was never presented as an option. Together the two positions define his negotiating posture: accept the economic relief on offer while keeping the nuclear file sealed.