US, Iran military leaders to hold talks in Doha

US Vice-President JD Vance said the United States and Iran have agreed to establish a direct security channel between the US Central Command and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of an effort to reduce the risk of renewed escalation after the recent war between the two countries.

In an interview with the British website UnHerd following marathon talks with Iranian officials in Switzerland, Vance said one of Washington’s goals was to create a channel on the Iranian side that could help reduce friction and prevent disputes from turning into open conflict.

“One of the things we wanted to come out with,” Vance said, was a “channel on the Iranian side” for reducing conflict. “Which we did. They were like, ‘OK, fine, we’ll send somebody from the IRGC to go hang out in Doha with somebody from CENTCOM,’ and that’s how we’re going to settle a lot of these disputes.”

The reported arrangement would bring Iranian military officials and American officers together in Doha, Qatar, in what Vance described as a mechanism to settle disputes and lower tensions.

The talks in Switzerland were mediated by Pakistan and Qatar and included senior Iranian officials, among them Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

According to UnHerd, the main breakthrough at the Lake Lucerne summit was an agreement in principle to create a new security channel between the US and Iranian militaries. Vance said the channel could become a foundation for broader de-escalation, though he acknowledged that any progress still depends on whether Tehran’s words are followed by action.

Whether Iran’s “rhetorical flexibility is going to be met with action, that’s the big question hanging over all of this,” he said.

Vance said the current memorandum of understanding being discussed with Iran is not comparable to the Obama-era nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He argued that the new document is more limited and preliminary, focused first on stopping the fighting, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and testing whether a broader nuclear and sanctions agreement is possible.

“There are many things I don’t like about the comparison to the JCPOA,” Vance said, “but one of them is that the MOU is a much more generic document than the JCPOA.”

“It really is a foundational document: let’s open the Strait, let’s stop shooting at each other, and let’s see if we can make a nuclear deal. And from their perspective, it’s, ‘Let’s lift the blockade, let’s stop shooting at each other, and let’s see if there’s a sanctions deal.’ That’s fundamentally where it’s coming from.”

Vance said the Iranians were now offering “things radically different from the JCPOA,” including a tougher inspection regime and the “elimination” of Iran’s existing enriched uranium stockpile.

“The flip side,” he said, “is that they really want a fundamentally transformed relationship with the United States and the world — [and] I don’t know where we’re going to be able to land in the middle.”

The vice-president also said Gulf states were holding new discussions with Tehran, including with elements of the Revolutionary Guards. He singled out the United Arab Emirates, calling it “by far the most hawkish, by far the most pro-Israel country in the [Gulf Cooperation Council],” and said it had opened conversations with the Iranians that had not taken place before.

“They’re having conversations with the Iranians that have never happened before, including with the IRGC, about various types of economic incentives — ‘Here’s what we’d need to see to make your country investable’ — and the Iranians come back and say, ‘Okay, yeah, we’re willing to do all those things’,” Vance said.

At the same time, Gulf states signalled they oppose Iran’s demand to tie the emerging arrangement to the Lebanese front.