Witkoff, Kushner to attend Iran talks in Islamabad; Vance on standby - CNN
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to Pakistan to participate in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi this weekend, CNN reported citing two administration officials.
Vice President JD Vance is not currently planning to attend as Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, is not participating either, the report said.
Vane will be on standby to travel to Islamabad if talks progress, the officials were quoted as saying, and members of his staff will be in Pakistan and attending the negotiations.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to introduce legislation to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the next parliamentary session, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle.
Starmer said legislation would be brought forward “in a few weeks” as parliament reconvenes.
“In relation to malign state actors more generally, proscription, we do need legislation in order to take necessary measures, and that is legislation that we're bringing forward as soon as we can.”
“We go into a new session in a few weeks' time, and we'll bring that legislation forward,” he said.
He also voiced concern over Tehran’s activities in the United Kingdom, saying he was “very worried” about the increasing use of proxies by the Islamic Republic.
Starmer made the remarks during a solidarity trip to Kenton United Synagogue on Thursday.
The visit came on the eve of the court appearance of two men accused of spying on Jewish and Israeli targets in London on behalf of the Iranian intelligence.
Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, and Alireza Farasati, 22, face charges under the UK’s National Security Act of engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors allege the activity was carried out for Iran.
Growing threats
Starmer's pledge to ban Iran's IRGC comes at a time of growing concern about threats, intimidation, and violence affecting people linked to Iran in Britain.
On April 18, Iran International received reports that an Iranian man was violently assaulted in central London. The Metropolitan Police are understood to be investigating.
On April 17, British police charged three people over an attempted arson attack near the London offices of Iran International.
Police said a burning container was thrown towards the broadcaster’s headquarters in north-west London. No one was injured, but the case has added to concerns about the safety of Persian-language media in Britain.
Before that, in March 2026, an Iran-aligned group was reported to have claimed responsibility for an arson attack on Jewish ambulances in Golders Green, north London.
In May 2025, three Iranian men were charged under the National Security Act after a major counter-terrorism investigation. Prosecutors said one of the men had carried out surveillance, reconnaissance, and online research with the aim of committing serious violence against a person in the UK.
The other two were accused of similar activity intended to help others carry out serious violence. The Home Secretary said the case was part of a broader response to threats linked to the Iranian state.
British authorities have warned for several years that Iran poses a serious threat on UK soil.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel is working in full coordination with the United States to increase economic and military pressure on Iran, while also pursuing what he described as a “historic” peace process with Lebanon despite efforts by Hezbollah to derail it.
In a video message released Friday, Netanyahu said Israel had “set out to change the reality of the Middle East,” emphasizing that current actions were reinforcing that strategy.
“Regarding Iran, I had a very good conversation with the president,” he said, referring to Donald Trump. “He is putting very strong pressure on Iran, both economically and militarily. And we are acting in full cooperation.”
Netanyahu also pointed to developments on Israel’s northern front, saying a diplomatic track with Lebanon had begun.
“In Lebanon, we have started a process to achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon,” he said, adding that “it is clear to us that Hezbollah is trying to sabotage this.”
The real story behind Tehran’s sudden “unity” campaign did not begin with Donald Trump’s accusations of disarray within Iran’s leadership. It began with a secret letter to Mojtaba Khamenei.
In recent days, word has circulated in Iranian political circles about a highly confidential letter reportedly written by a group of senior officials to Mojtaba Khamenei.
According to those familiar with the matter, the letter warned that Iran’s economic situation is grave, that the country cannot continue on its current path, and that the leadership has no practical choice but to negotiate seriously with the United States over the nuclear file.
The historical echo is hard to miss. In the final days of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, senior Iranian officials and commanders warned Ruhollah Khomeini that the war could no longer be sustained.
The real story behind Tehran’s sudden “unity” campaign did not begin with Donald Trump’s accusations of disarray within Iran’s leadership. It began with a secret letter to Mojtaba Khamenei.
In recent days, word has circulated in Iranian political circles about a highly confidential letter reportedly written by a group of senior officials to Mojtaba Khamenei.
According to those familiar with the matter, the letter warned that Iran’s economic situation is grave, that the country cannot continue on its current path, and that the leadership has no practical choice but to negotiate seriously with the United States over the nuclear file.
The historical echo is hard to miss. In the final days of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, senior Iranian officials and commanders warned Ruhollah Khomeini that the war could no longer be sustained.
Only days earlier, Khomeini had still been insisting on continuing the war. But under the weight of those warnings, he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598 and ended the conflict, a decision he famously likened to drinking from a poisoned chalice.
That is why the current letter matters: it suggests that some senior figures now see the nuclear standoff as another moment when ideological insistence is colliding with the limits of the state.
The reported signatories included senior figures such as Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Masoud Pezeshkian, Abbas Araghchi, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, and others. Some officials apparently refused to sign it. One name now circulating is Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator under Ebrahim Raisi.
The letter was supposed to remain top secret. It was addressed to Mojtaba Khamenei, not to the public, Parliament, or the ordinary political class. But according to accounts now circulating, Bagheri Kani showed the letter to other hardliners outside the high-level circle and emphasized that he had not signed it. From there, the matter leaked into political circles in Tehran.
Two public reactions suggest how sensitive the leak has become. The first came from Jalil Mohebbi, a figure close to Ghalibaf and a former secretary of the headquarters for Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil.
In a pointed legal warning, he wrote that if a confidential letter is given to a member of a meeting, and that person shows it to outsiders while saying, “I did not sign this letter,” then under Article 3 of the law on publishing and disclosing confidential and secret government documents, that person can face up to ten years in prison.
Mohebbi added: “This offense is unforgivable.”
The second came from a Telegram channel that referred to an “important confidential letter” written by some senior officials and left unsigned by others.
The post asked why, at such a sensitive moment after the war, some officials had begun writing letters to “senior figures of the system,” and why others were so angry about its disclosure. In Iranian political language, that phrase is often used to refer to the Supreme Leader without naming him directly.
Trump’s claim meets Tehran’s denial
This was the atmosphere in which Trump’s claim landed. He said Iranian officials were “fighting like cats and dogs” because they could not agree about negotiations with the United States. Tehran immediately claimed otherwise. On Thursday, senior officials moved in near-unison to insist there was no split.
Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament, wrote: “In Iran there are no hardliners or moderates. We are all Iranian and revolutionary.” He added that with the “iron unity of the nation and the state” and full obedience to the Supreme Leader, Iran would make the “criminal aggressor” regret its actions.
President Pezeshkian posted almost the same message: “In Iran, there are no ‘hardliners’ or ‘moderates.’ We are all Iranians and revolutionaries.” He too invoked unity between nation and state, obedience to the Leader, and victory for Iran.
Mohseni Ejei, the head of the Judiciary, went further. He said the “foolish president of America” should know that “hardliner” and “moderate” are absurd and baseless terms from Western political literature. In Islamic Iran, he said, all groups and factions ultimately stand united under the orders of the Supreme Leader.
Mojtaba’s red line
Before the first round of negotiations, Mojtaba Khamenei had reportedly drawn a red line: Iranian officials were not to discuss the nuclear issue with the United States. But the Iranian delegation had to talk about the nuclear file, because any serious negotiation with Washington necessarily revolves around it. So they did.
That decision triggered the hardline backlash.
Mahmoud Nabavian, deputy chairman of Parliament’s National Security Commission, was present in the Pakistan negotiations. He has since said that the outcome of those talks was not satisfactory and that the negotiating team made a “strategic mistake.” His accusation was specific: the team acted “contrary to the explicit red line of the Leader of the Revolution” by discussing the nuclear issue with America.
Nabavian also said the delegation should have discussed the ten points set out by the Supreme Leader, not the nuclear file. He criticized the idea that the “Resistance Front” could be reduced only to Lebanon, saying Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq are also part of it.
Most importantly, he said that based on new information he had received, from now on, “even if the naval blockade is lifted, any negotiation with America is forbidden.”
Amir Hossein Sabeti, a hardline MP, made the same charge more directly. “I am saying this for the first time, and I stand by what I say,” he said. “If what I say is false, the officials should take action against me.” He added that one of the Leader’s red lines was that “in the negotiations, the nuclear issue must absolutely not be discussed.”
Then he challenged Ghalibaf and Araghchi by name: if they did not negotiate over the nuclear issue, they should explicitly deny it. If it becomes clear that they did, he warned, “we will frankly speak out to the people of Iran in a different way.”
The backlash moves into the open
This helps explain why the Iranian delegation did not travel to Pakistan for the second round. The dispute was no longer merely about diplomatic tactics. It had become a fight over whether senior officials had crossed a red line set by Mojtaba Khamenei.
The backlash then moved into the media. Nour News, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, published a video warning that a “dangerous current” was trying to portray Ghalibaf and Araghchi as figures who, instead of following the line of resistance, were seeking “surrender and compromise.” Nour News said this current was trying to place them against the Leader and other senior pillars of the system.
That formulation is revealing. Ghalibaf and Araghchi were not only answering Trump. They were under pressure from within the regime, where hardliners accused them of abandoning the resistance, pushing compromise, and trying to pressure the Leader.
The secret letter appears to be the center of this crisis. One camp believes Iran’s economic situation has become so severe that the country must negotiate over the nuclear issue and try to reach a deal. Another camp believes that even discussing the nuclear file with America violates Mojtaba Khamenei’s order and amounts to surrender.
From left to right: Masoud Pezeshkian, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, Ali Bagheri Kani
The unity tweets as damage control
That is why Thursday’s tweets sounded so coordinated. They were not just patriotic slogans. They were loyalty statements. Ghalibaf, Pezeshkian, Mohseni Ejei, and others were signaling that they stood with the Leader, not against him, and that the leaked letter should not be read as an act of rebellion.
So when Tehran says there is no division, the evidence points the other way.
There was a secret letter to the leader. Some officials signed it; others refused. The letter leaked. A figure close to Ghalibaf threatened legal consequences for the disclosure. Hardline MPs accused the negotiating team of violating the Leader’s red line. Nour News warned that Ghalibaf and Araghchi were being portrayed as men of “surrender and compromise.” Then, suddenly, senior officials issued synchronized tweets declaring unity and obedience.
Trump said Iranian officials were “fighting like cats and dogs” over negotiations with the United States. Tehran rejected the claim, but the sequence of events points to a real internal fight. The dispute is not cosmetic. It goes to the core of the regime’s strategy: whether Iran can survive its economic crisis without a nuclear deal, and whether pursuing such a deal now means defying Mojtaba Khamenei.
The unity tweets were not proof that Tehran is united. They were the public cover for a split that had already become visible.
Israel’s military said it targeted senior figures linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit over plots to harm Israeli citizens at home and abroad.
The military said the strikes, carried out with Israel’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, hit key operatives including Majid Khademi, identified as head of the unit, and Mohsen Souri, described as overseeing operations.
It added that in recent weeks an alleged Iran-directed plan involving allied militias in Iraq had been underway, including the use of foreign operatives and direct financing.
Israel said it continues to monitor related infrastructure and would act against it if necessary.
