Iran parliament speaker says Vance sought talks amid June war
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that by the sixth day of a 12-day conflict with Israel, US vice president JD Vance was seeking talks to end the war.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that by the sixth day of a 12-day conflict with Israel, US vice president JD Vance was seeking talks to end the war.
“Despite the damage we got on the first day, the situation reached a point where by the sixth day, the US Vice President was seeking negotiations to stop the war,” Ghalibaf told a Tehran even for the Basij, Iran's domestic militia.
“The enemy entered with military action, and we admonished and punished it with military power,” he added. “The enemy acted with full calculations to stop the revolution and disintegrate Iran.”
Vance's office did not immediately respond to an Iran International request for comment.
“Iran targeted the US command headquarters in the region with 14 missiles in less than 24 hours. Anti-missile systems failed to intercept them, and this response halted further attacks,” Ghalibaf added.
Washington engaged in talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year after giving its Mideast arch-enemy a 60-day ultimatum.
After it expired on June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign killing senior nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians. Iranian counterattacks killed 32 Israeli civilians and an off-duty soldier.
Joining the conflict on the tenth day, the United States attacked three Iranian nuclear sites. The next day Iran responded with missile attacks on a US airbase in Qatar before US President Donald Trump enforced a ceasefire on the twelfth day.
The impasse over Iran's disputed program festers despite Trump's assertion that the US attacks had "obliterated" it.
Iran said on Wednesday that no talks were underway with the United States, rejecting President Donald Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the two sides were in dialogue.
Trump had said the previous day that the United States was talking with Iran and that he believed Tehran wanted a deal “very badly.”
"There's never been a time like this in the Middle East. You have peace in the Middle East now," Trump told Fox News in an interview published on Friday.
"You have Iran, which has been beaten very badly, and their nuclear capability taken away, and they want to make a deal, and we probably will make a deal with Iran. But you have peace for the first time in the Middle East, you have real peace."
Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon and has rejected US demands that it end domestic enrichment, rein in its missile program and cut off help for its armed Mideast allies.
Washington engaged in talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year after giving its Mideast arch-enemy a 60-day ultimatum.
On the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which was capped with US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
The impasse over the disputed program festers despite Trump's assertion that the US attacks had "obliterated" it.
'Down to size'
Trump welcomed the de facto leader of Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House this week, and has several times said his actions in Iran defanged Tehran. He repeatedly said Washington was in dialogue with Tehran in assertions flatly rejected by Iran.
"One year ago. You had nuclear weapons. You had Iran was boasting about how strong they were, you had this is a totally different Middle East right now," Trump added.
"You have countries that want to make peace, as opposed to countries that had no idea of making peace. We've taken a big, dark cloud off of the Middle East by bringing Iran back down to size."
The two-year regional conflagration sparked by Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 was paused by a ceasefire Trump brokered last month, but the truce appears fragile as Israeli air strikes hit Gaza and southern Lebanon this week.
Israel accuses Hamas and Hezbollah, armed allies of Iran on its southern and northern fronts, of seeking to rearm and posing a threat to its forces. The two groups say Israel is violating internationally brokered ceasefires with the attacks.
"You have Hamas, which is has been, you know, beaten very badly," Trump told Fox News. "You have Hezbollah with Lebanon, which is not good, but that's a, you know, relatively small situation, not a good situation, but small."
The Asr-e Iran news outlet direct a sharp rebuke at Alireza Biniaz, the Kish Friday prayer leader in the form of a lengthy commentary. Friday prayer leaders are official positions appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office.
“What does a special beach for the Friday prayer leader and his friends even mean? Was wanting special treatment in other areas not enough – now a special beach too?” the outlet said.
“You go to university with special privileges, get hired with special privileges, use a privileged internet line, and then go to Kish to stay at a special beach?” Asr-e Iran wrote.
Biniaz's original letter was addressed to Mohammadjafar Kabiri, the head of the Kish Free Zone Organization. Earlier discussions with the economy minister, Biniaz wrote, had produced an understanding to build and operate a special beach for the Friday prayer institution.
He urged officials to expedite and finalize its allocation to allow access for “devout individuals, committed citizens, officials and special guests.”
Public spaces and equal access
Asr-e Iran rejected dividing society into categories of devotion. “Why insist on separating society into devout and non-devout?” it said. “It is the right of all Iranians to enjoy the island’s amenities, and the degree of anyone’s devotion is not for the Friday prayer leader of Kish – or anywhere else – to determine,” the website added.
The outlet asked President Massoud Pezeshkian to verify the letter’s authenticity and assess any role played by the economy ministry, arguing that inaction would reinforce perceptions of privileged access for clerics.
Earlier cases reflect a wider pattern
This is not the first time Friday prayer leaders and figures close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have sought special advantages for themselves, with their names appearing in economic corruption files and similar cases.
In March 2024, journalist Yashar Soltani published documents revealing financial misconduct by Kazem Sedighi, then the Tehran Friday prayer leader, involving the 4,200-square-meter property valued at roughly ten trillion rials ($8.85 million).
The property, which had been under the control of a seminary managed by Sedighi, was transferred for only 66 billion rials ($58.4 thousand).
After widespread criticism and a strong public reaction, Sedighi eventually wrote to Khamenei in August seeking “to be excused from leading Friday prayers in order to focus on academic, teaching and preaching work,” a request the Supreme Leader approved.
“Like the diplomacy which was assaulted by Israel and the US in June, the Cairo Agreement has been killed by the US and the E3,” Araghchi wrote on X, referring to Britain, France and Germany.
He said the chain of events began when “Iran was suddenly attacked by Israel and then the US” on the eve of a new round of indirect nuclear talks.
“When Iran later signed a deal with the IAEA in Cairo to resume inspections despite the bombings, the E3 pursued UN sanctions against our people under US pressure,” he wrote.
Araghchi said that when Iran began allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to its facilities, “the US and the E3 ganged up to censure Iran” at the agency’s Board of Governors.
“Iran is not the party that seeks to manufacture another crisis,” he added. “The official termination of the Cairo Agreement is the direct outcome of their provocations.”
Tehran says resolution is politically driven
His comments followed Iran’s announcement that it will respond to a resolution passed on Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which Tehran called “illegal and unjustified.” The Foreign Ministry said the measure, backed by Washington and its European allies, was a “political misuse of the Agency” and had nullified the Cairo inspection accord reached in September.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had officially informed the IAEA that the understanding reached in Cairo was “no longer valid.” “The so-called Cairo accord, which had been achieved through lengthy negotiations and Iran’s goodwill, is now considered void,” he told state media.
The ministry said the United States and the three European countries “ignored Iran’s responsible and good-faith conduct, disrupting the positive path that had emerged between Iran and the Agency, and forced Iran to declare the termination of the September 9 understanding.”
Resolution presses Iran for access after attacks
The IAEA Board of Governors adopted the Western-backed resolution urging Iran to provide full access and information about its nuclear program. Diplomats said the measure passed with 19 votes in favor, three against and 12 abstentions, with Russia, China and Niger voting against it.
The resolution calls on Iran to allow verification of its enriched uranium stockpile and inspections at sites damaged by US and Israeli airstrikes in June. Iran says those attacks killed several nuclear scientists and halted cooperation with the Agency because of security concerns.
Earlier this week, Araghchi said Washington’s approach amounted to “dictation, not negotiation,” accusing the US of trying to achieve through diplomacy what it failed to gain by force. “They want us to accept zero enrichment and limits on our defense capabilities,” he said. “This is not negotiation.”