Iran FM Araghchi tells Al Jazeera: receiving direct messages from Witkoff 'as before' — not negotiations

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera in an interview that he has been receiving direct messages from US special envoy Steve Witkoff 'as before,' but that these communications do not constitute 'negotiations,' the Guardian reported. The statement confirms a live direct channel between Witkoff — Trump's dealmaker who brokered the Gaza ceasefire and the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire framework — and Iran's foreign minister. Araghchi's 'as before' phrasing suggests this channel predates D32 and has been operating throughout the conflict. Iran's FM spokesperson Baghaei had previously acknowledged on March 30 that Iran had 'received proposals for talks with the United States through intermediaries, including Pakistan.' The direct Witkoff-Araghchi channel is separate from the Pakistani intermediary track and represents a higher-level US-Iran communication pathway. Iran's insistence that the messages 'do not constitute negotiations' preserves face for a regime whose hardliners reject direct talks with the US. The distinction may be semantic in practice: Witkoff sending messages and Araghchi receiving them is the functional equivalent of talks, regardless of the label.