Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf — identified by Axios as Trump's claimed interlocutor1 — posted that "no negotiations have been held with the US," calling Trump's claims an effort to "manipulate markets and escape the quagmire"2. Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei acknowledged that "messages had been conveyed through several friendly countries" but denied direct talks. A senior Foreign Ministry official then told CBS News separately: "we received points from the U.S. through mediators and they are being reviewed"3. Three statements, three registers, one government — each calibrated for a different audience.
The gap between public denial and private processing is where Iranian diplomacy has historically operated. During the secret Oman channel in 2012–2013 that produced the JCPOA, Tehran publicly denied bilateral contact with Washington for months while envoys met in Muscat. The Islamic Republic's political system requires that any engagement with the United States appear imposed by circumstances rather than sought — especially under a new Supreme Leader whose public absence since being named on 9 March has raised questions about whether he is functioning at all. Ghalibaf's use as a channel is itself a signal: he is the parliamentary speaker, not the foreign minister or a representative of The Supreme Leader's office. A legislative figure keeps any contact informal and deniable. Mediators are reportedly working to arrange a face-to-face meeting between him and the US delegation in Islamabad4.
Whether that meeting happens depends on actors Ghalibaf does not control. The Jerusalem Post reported, citing unnamed sources, that the IRGC controls Mojtaba Khamenei rather than the reverse. The Guards run the Hormuz toll system — now collecting up to $2 million per vessel — and the daily missile volleys that have reached their 70th wave. They have no institutional incentive to negotiate away wartime authority and revenue. Ghalibaf himself ran for president in 2024 and lost to Pezeshkian; his political ambitions could be served or destroyed by association with US talks, and his emphatic public denial suggests he is hedging.
Iran's stated conditions for ending the war — articulated by Foreign Minister Araghchi on 17 March — include the removal of all US military bases from the region and reparations. Trump's 15-point list reportedly demands Iran's commitment to never possess a nuclear weapon. The distance between these positions is not a negotiating gap. It is two governments describing different conflicts. But the fact that US terms are being "reviewed" at all — after 25 days of bombardment that have killed at least 1,407 civilians including 214 children5 — suggests that someone inside the Iranian system is looking for a door, even as the public posture remains defiance.
