In a stunning turn of events, US Vice President JD Vance told the media outlet Unherd on Thursday that CENTCOM officials will meet with Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials in Doha, Qatar, to resolve conflicts between the sides.
"One of the things we wanted to come out with,” he tells me, was a “channel on the Iranian side” for reducing conflict.
“Which we did. They were like, ‘OK, fine, we’ll send somebody from the IRGC to go hang out in Doha with somebody from CENTCOM,’ and that’s how we’re going to settle a lot of these disputes,” Vance told Unherd.
The statement might cause whiplash for observers who know that seemingly only moments ago, CENTCOM was part of a bombing campaign with Israel in which IRGC officials all over Iran, killing them in large numbers, likely hundreds, if not in the thousands.
Although Israel took the lead for assassinating senior IRGC officials, it is likely that CENTCOM had a significant hand in this as well.
CENTCOM, IRGC officials to hold direct talks in Qatar
Further, US law currently defines the IRGC as a terror group, leaving the legality of such meetings in a gray area.
Also, the IRGC is the largest intelligence agency in Iran, even larger than the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, making it seem like a potential mismatch for it to be meeting with a military entity like CENTCOM, even if the IRGC also has significantly more military components.
In fact, usually when the US meets with enemy countries, especially those connected to intelligence, the CIA often takes the lead, because it can do so covertly and is less bound by standard laws and transparency considerations than the US military.
It was unclear why Vance did not mention the CIA.
However, one factor could be the very public nature of the talks themselves, whereas when the CIA is involved in sensitive talks, usually the whole point is for them to be secret.
For example, in the past, the CIA might have met with Russia's FSB, or its predecessor, the KGB, covertly to negotiate certain sensitive issues between the countries.
But once meetings with other countries are made public, the US State Department is often brought into the picture.
There have been instances where former CIA Directors, like William Burns (2021-2025), were involved publicly in talks, such as in negotiations with Israel and Qatar (representing Hamas) over Israeli hostage negotiations.
But observers might say that Burns was added to the mix once it became clear that then Mossad Director David Barnea was taking the lead on the issue for Israel, which would have made sending a US State Department official a different kind of mismatch.
This returns to the point that possibly what is most unique here is the injection of CENTCOM into the mix.
On the other hand, if successful, some observers would say that building trust between military officials from both sides is more likely to help with avoiding future conflict than mere political officials talking to each other.
CENTCOM chief Gen. Brad Cooper has been involved in some past negotiating rounds with Iran, but publicly at least, the Iranian officials involved in those talks were civilian diplomats.
CENTCOM directed The Jerusalem Post to the Vice President's Office for any responses.
The CIA rarely gives public comments on such thorny issues.
The Post is seeking comment from the Vice President's Office and the CIA.