📻60-Minute Program Podcast, Monday 26 Mordad 1405

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, says Washington has a direct communication channel with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); a claim that the IRGC rejected hours later. A senior Kurdish official in Iraq, in response to BBC Persian, also confirmed that Nechirvan Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s government, established a relationship between the negotiators’ team of the United States and IRGC officials. Today, the office of the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region was also targeted by drone attacks, and once again the finger of accusation has been pointed at Tehran. All of this has coincided with Iran’s warning that if diplomacy does not produce results, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and the region will intensify. Trump, however, says he is not in a hurry to end the war. Why did the United States enter into talks directly with the IRGC? Can behind-the-scenes channels open a path back to diplomacy?