Are Iran and US in direct contact amid war? Report says Araghchi sent text messages to Witkoff focused on ending war

US-Iran War: Even as bombs fall and official denials multiply, a slender diplomatic thread appears to have been quietly rewoven between Washington and Tehran. Axios reports that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reopened a communications channel in recent days, citing a US official and a separate official with direct knowledge of the matter.

If confirmed, this fragile and contested development marks the first contact between the two sides since the US-Israel war with Iran erupted more than a fortnight ago.

What did the messages say? Who sent them first?

Axios, quoting a US official and another official familiar with the exchanges, says Araghchi initiated contact by sending text messages to Witkoff that centred on bringing the war to a close.

The account contradicts an earlier report by Drop Site News, published on Monday, which claimed Witkoff had been the one reaching out, and that Iranian officials suggested Araghchi was ignoring the White House envoy.

The US official flatly rejected Araghchi's version of events, saying that it was the Iranian foreign minister who initiated the contact, even as Washington insisted it is "not talking" to Iran in any formal sense.

Araghchi denies contact; Washington says he is lying

Araghchi moved swiftly to rebuff the Axios report after it was published. He posted on X: "My last contact with Witkoff was prior to his employer's decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran. Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public."

The US official, when Axios asked about that statement, did not mince words: the Iranian foreign minister was lying, and it was he who had reached out first.

Trump acknowledges talks but questions Iranian authority

US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Monday, confirmed that Iran had been in communication with the US side, whilst casting doubt on whether those doing the talking were empowered to reach any binding agreement.

"They want to make a deal. They are talking to our people; we have people wanting to negotiate, (but) we have no idea who they are," Trump said.

Despite expressing scepticism about Tehran's readiness to conclude a deal, Trump left the door open. "Sometimes good things come out of it," he noted.

Trump also pointed to the chaos within Iran's leadership structure, observing that many senior officials have been killed and that the country's newly installed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had not been seen publicly and may, he speculated, be dead.

Washington's position: No deal from weakness

A senior US official sought to draw a clear line around what any eventual agreement could look like. Iran's insistence on "reparations" as a precondition was dismissed out of hand. What Trump would entertain, the official said, was a framework that would allow Iran to "integrate with the rest of the world and make money from their oil."

"The president is always open to a deal. But he's not negotiating from a position of weakness. He's not backing away from the reasons this conflict started," the official said.

Tehran's public stance: No ceasefire without guarantees

Iranian officials have, for their part, maintained publicly in recent days that no ceasefire negotiations are underway with the Trump administration.

Their stated position is that a temporary pause in fighting is unacceptable - a short truce, they argue, would merely allow Washington and Tel Aviv an opportunity to regroup and strike again.

What Tehran says it demands instead is a permanent settlement with credible guarantees of durability.

Who actually speaks for Iran right now?

One complicating factor hanging over all of this is the fractured state of Iranian decision-making. US officials do not believe Araghchi has the authority to commit to anything. Before the war, he was not regarded as a central power broker; that assessment has not changed.

Yet Araghchi appears to be operating in coordination with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who has effectively assumed the role of civilian leader following the assassination of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei. That coordination gives the foreign minister a degree of institutional backing, even if his formal authority remains limited.

For the US side, Araghchi remains the preferred point of contact for a straightforward reason: they have a working relationship with him built before the conflict, and — unlike many of his colleagues — he is still alive.