Gabbard Called a Kurdish Leader to Open a Secret Back Channel Around Iran’s Own Negotiators, Axios Reports

Around May 10, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard telephoned Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and asked him to reach the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Axios reported, citing three sources with direct knowledge. U.S. negotiators had come to doubt that Iran’s Parliament speaker and foreign minister were empowered to close a deal. A source said Gabbard told Barzani she was calling with the approval of Trump and Vice President JD Vance. On May 14 an IRGC official arrived at Barzani’s office in Erbil with an encrypted phone; Vahidi told Barzani the IRGC backed the negotiators.

Routing a national-security overture through a foreign regional leader, outside the formal mediation channel and outside the State Department, leaves no diplomatic record and depends on one intermediary’s account of what a hostile commander said.

The administration then asked Barzani to host direct U.S.-Iran talks in Erbil, but the Iranians declined, fearing Israeli assassination. The memorandum of understanding reached in June has since collapsed.