Axios: Trump secretly contacted IRGC leadership through Barzani

US President Donald Trump secretly established contact with Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Ahmad Vahidi through Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

According to Axios, cited by Report, three informed sources said the Trump administration established a secret communication channel with IRGC leadership through Barzani in May, after questioning the authority of Iran's official negotiators.

The report said that on May 10, then-US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, with the approval of Trump and Vice President JD Vance, called Barzani and asked him to help establish contact with Vahidi. Barzani, who studied at Tehran University and speaks fluent Persian, has personal ties with many Iranian officials and agreed to help.

According to Axios, the IRGC commander confirmed during a secret phone call that he was willing to support talks with the United States and was interested in a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. Washington proposed holding a secret meeting in Erbil, but Iran rejected the proposal over concerns that Israeli intelligence agents could be present, the sources said.

"The history of the conflict has highlighted a key problem for Washington in negotiations with Tehran: uncertainty over who makes the final decisions in Iran," the author wrote.

Axios noted that the deaths of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials during the war significantly strengthened the IRGC"s control over the levers of power.

According to sources, Barzani sent a message to the White House in recent days offering to help resume US-Iran negotiations.

However, the main obstacle remains not the mediators but Iran"s position on the Strait of Hormuz, which is unlikely to change in the near term, the author argued.