Vance offers Iran talks as US weighs renewed strikes

US Vice President JD Vance has offered Iran a new path to negotiations even as Washington weighs renewed strikes, leaving the two countries at odds over what must happen first: limits on Iran’s nuclear programme or relief from US sanctions.

Vance sent a letter on Sunday to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, through Qatari mediation. The Guardian reported that the proposal calls for Iran to make nuclear commitments at the start of a process that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days in return for US sanctions relief. Al Jazeera, citing The New York Times, reported that Vance offered to lead direct talks with Iran’s nuclear programme on the table from the outset.

Tehran has resisted making irreversible commitments while the US steps it seeks, including lifting sanctions on oil exports, could be reversed, The Guardian reported. Washington wants specific early commitments on Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, including its removal. According to The Guardian, Iran has proposed blending down the stockpile so it could no longer be used to make a nuclear weapon. A third-party guarantee that both sides would honor a deal has also been discussed, the newspaper reported.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and a chief negotiator, said Tehran had already set out its terms. “The carrot-and-stick approach has no effect on Iran,” he wrote on X, according to The Guardian. “Progress can only be achieved once Iran’s seven conditions have been agreed upon.” The reported conditions include lifting sanctions, unfreezing Iranian assets and ending the war on all fronts. Al Jazeera reported that they also include ending the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and guarantees against further US-Israeli strikes.

The diplomatic approach comes alongside preparations for possible attacks. Al Jazeera reported that Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, briefed President Donald Trump on strike options Thursday, citing The Wall Street Journal. Citing The New York Times, it also reported that the US and Israel had drawn up joint attack plans for after the November 3 US midterm elections.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who said he had been briefed on the plans, called them “insane.” Speaking at the Middle East Institute, he warned that the proposed attacks would bring “devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law,” The Guardian reported.

Whether Vance’s outreach can bridge the distrust remains uncertain. Rouzbeh Parsi, an Iran analyst at Lund University, told Al Jazeera that Vance’s signals had been less volatile than those of other administration figures, but that his position had “never proven to be sturdy enough to actually sway Trump.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera in September that Tehran no longer trusted negotiations with Washington because attacks had occurred during earlier rounds of talks. Israel struck Iran in June 2025 shortly before scheduled US-Iran talks, and the US joined those attacks later that month. The US and Israel attacked again in February 2026, two days after talks in Geneva that mediator Oman said had made “significant progress.”