Report: Nechirvan Barzani Served as a Secret Backchannel Between Washington and Tehran to End the War

ARK News.. In a report published on Sunday, August 16, 2026, the U.S. website “Axios” revealed a previously undisclosed role played by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, who served as a backchannel between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and the leadership of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to gauge Tehran’s position on ending the war and reaching a political settlement.

According to the report, the Trump administration relied on Nechirvan Barzani because he is trusted by both Washington and Tehran and because of his close ties with both sides, which made him well-placed to act as a mediator.

Axios noted that following the ceasefire between the United States and Iran on April 8 and a summit held in Islamabad a few days later, the two sides attempted to negotiate an end to the war; however, the Iranian side took more than ten days to provide its response.

The report stated that in mid-May, U.S. negotiators encountered challenges in determining whether the official Iranian delegation, which included Majlis Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibav and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, possessed the authority to reach agreements without opposition from Iran’s military establishment.

The report added that Nechirvan Barzani contacted the Iranian side and received a positive response from IRGC commander General Ahmad Wahidi, which led the Trump administration to propose secret, direct talks in Erbil between senior U.S. and Iranian negotiators.

According to “Axios,” the Iranian side did not reject the proposal but raised what the report described as “serious” security concerns, and the talks were ultimately canceled.

The website quoted informed sources as saying that the president of the Kurdistan Region recently sent new messages to the White House in which he once again offered to help revive the stalled negotiations, while other mediators, including Pakistan and Qatar, continue to convey messages between Washington and Tehran without making tangible progress, according to the report.

According to the published information, the report did not include additional details regarding the nature of the recent letters or the positions of the U.S. and Iranian sides on the new initiative.

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