Investor Gary Black said Monday that President Donald Trump’s claim of ceasefire contacts with Iran may be grounded in real diplomacy, but he argued any talks are unfolding around, not through, Iran’s most hardline power center.
Black Says Iran’s Leadership Is Fracturing
In a post on X, the Future Fund managing director wrote that Trump was “likely telling the truth” about negotiations, while contending that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, was not part of them and that Iran no longer appeared to be acting as a single unified leadership bloc. He added that a U.S. delegation seemed to be meeting Iranian counterparts in Pakistan, bypassing the Guards.
Black’s comments followed Trump’s announcement on Truth Social and later to reporters that Washington and Tehran were engaged in “very, very strong talks” aimed at a “total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
Trump Delays Strikes To Keep Talks Alive
Trump said he would delay threatened strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure for five days to let those “productive conversations” continue. He also said Iran had agreed it could not possess nuclear weapons and identified Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as the main U.S. envoys in the effort.
But the diplomacy narrative quickly ran into conflicting signals from Tehran. Reuters reported that Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf denied any talks with Washington and called the reports “fakenews” meant to manipulate oil and financial markets. The same Reuters report said a European official described Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states as message carriers and said direct talks could potentially be held in Islamabad this week.
Missiles Fly As Tehran Rejects Claims
At the same time, Reuters said the IRGC announced fresh attacks on U.S. targets, dismissed Trump’s remarks as “psychological operations,” and later said it had targeted several Israeli cities, including Dimona and Tel Aviv, as well as several U.S. bases. Israel’s military said it detected missiles launched from Iran Monday night, with at least one interception blast heard from Jerusalem.
Image via Shutterstock/ Joshua Sukoff
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