IRGC told US via secret backchannel that it backs Iran’s negotiators — report

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told the White House that the hardline group backed the Tehran regime in its negotiations with the US for a ceasefire deal, via a secret backchannel between the IRGC and Trump administration, Axios reports, citing three unnamed sources.

According to the report, US officials feared that talks with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were liable to be undermined by the IRGC, which is thought to be the most powerful group behind Iran’s leadership.

In May, then-director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reached out to Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, who has close ties to the IRGC, to attempt to find out the position of its leader, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi.

A few days later, Barzani arranged a phone call with Vahidi, during which the general assured him that the IRGC backed Araghchi and Ghalibaf. “I fully support them and this is also the position of the IRGC. We prefer to solve this crisis through negotiations,” he is quoted as having said. His message was quickly passed to the White House via Gabbard.

The Trump administration sought to expand Barzani’s role by having him host direct talks between the US and Iran in Erbil, Iraq, but the Iranians declined due to fears that representatives would be targeted by Israel, which was thought to have a strong intelligence presence in Kurdistan, the report says.

Barzani recently made an offer to the White House to restart talks, Axios reports.