Al-Monitor: US proposes Vance‑Ghalibaf talks with Türkiye as intermediary Iran has yet to respond

The United States has proposed talks between Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad‑Bagher Ghalibaf, with Türkiye as intermediary, a Turkish source told Reuters, signalling a potential diplomatic shift as the war nears one month.

According to Al-Monitor, the proposal was conveyed through intermediaries, including Türkiye. Iran has yet to respond to the proposal, the source said.

The initiative comes as the U.S. announced it had paused strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure for five days, a move President Donald Trump described as resulting from “productive” talks.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed efforts to end the war on Monday (March 23) with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, a Turkish diplomatic source said.

The conversations followed Fidan’s talks on March 22 with U.S. officials and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, the source added. Plans are also underway for a potential meeting in Islamabad involving senior U.S. and Iranian officials, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the discussions.

Ghalibaf has denied that any negotiations have taken place with the United States, though he did not rule out third‑party mediation.

“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” he said in a post on X.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry earlier confirmed that regional countries were conveying U.S. messages to Tehran, according to Iranian state media.

Türkiye has been pushing for a temporary ceasefire to create space for diplomacy. After a Gulf tour that included visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Fidan said: “We should also consider the possibility of declaring a short‑term ceasefire and beginning negotiations during that period.”

Fidan argued that any path to a ceasefire also required persuading Israel, saying the main obstacle was not a lack of proposals but “the absence of political will on the Israeli side to end the war.”

“The problem is not the absence of plans to end the war. The problem is that Israel does not want peace,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Vance and Trump held separate calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a video address, Netanyahu said that Trump “thinks there is an opportunity to draw on recent military achievements to achieve the rest of the war’s goals through an agreement.”

“Such an agreement will protect our interests,” he added.

By Aghakazim Guliyev