WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance has written to Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, telling him that any negotiations to head off renewed American military action would "require discussions on the nuclear issue", a US official told Axios.

The letter, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, is the most senior approach Washington has made to Tehran in several months, according to Axios. It comes six days before US midterm elections that President Donald Trump has repeatedly named as the point after which he may resume major strikes on Iran.

Asked on Wednesday whether he had told his deputy to restart peace talks, Trump said he had not. "No. They need help with medical supplies and various things," he told reporters, according to Israel National News. "Basically, it's getting supplies in to help people that are not well."

Trump said the idea had come from his deputy. "He asked me what I thought. I said, 'If you want to do that, that's okay'," he said. One of the Journal's sources said the move was directed by Trump and that the president was aware of it.

Axios reported that Trump was enthusiastic about the letter, and said it was not known when it was sent.

Rezaei is a former longtime commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and sits among the hardliners in Iran's leadership. He is one of the country's most senior security officials and has a direct line to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Axios reported. He met Khamenei on Tuesday, after talks with Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani officials, The Jerusalem Post reported.

He has given little ground in public. Rezaei said last week that Iran would not negotiate with Washington unless a set of fundamental Iranian demands were satisfied first. He has also warned that any new American attack would draw a wider Iranian response, one that could reach US-linked infrastructure including data centres and artificial intelligence sites.

Those demands are the heart of the deadlock. Iran wants the United States to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian funds held abroad and let it sell oil again. Washington wants nuclear negotiations restarted before any sanctions relief, Axios reported.

According to the Journal, neither the letter nor the exchanges between American and Iranian officials that followed it dealt with the terms of a settlement. What was discussed was the shape any negotiation might take. No detailed peace proposal has emerged.

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that Tehran was working with mediators on a plan to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in less than a week. "Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed," he wrote on X, adding that Tehran remained in "close and ongoing contact with intermediaries".

Iran first put that seven-day plan to the United States through Qatar in September, and Trump rejected it. Under it, Hormuz would reopen within seven days once a set of conditions were met, among them a ceasefire across the Middle East. Araghchi said a resumed war would not shift Iran's position. "They have already done so twice and have seen the results," he said.

The war began on February 28, when Trump announced that the United States had started major combat operations against Iran alongside Israeli strikes. Iran International reported at the time that he said the campaign would ensure Iran never obtained a nuclear weapon. The fighting followed the 12-day Israel-Iran war of June 2025, when American forces struck the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.

Iran closed Hormuz to shipping once the war started, and the United States has kept its own naval blockade on Iranian ports. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas used to pass through the strait, and the loss of those Gulf energy cargoes has been felt well beyond the region.

The Journal reported on Tuesday that Washington had told several Gulf Arab governments to prepare for a possible "short, intense military campaign" against Iran after November 3, and that Trump had not made a final decision.

Gulf capitals are pressing the other way. Axios reported that mediators led by Qatar are trying to assemble a deal that would restart US-Iran talks, with Iran allowing UN inspectors back into its bombed nuclear facilities in return for some sanctions relief. Tehran confirmed that Qatari envoys came for talks on Sunday. The Times of Israel reported that Saudi officials have urged the White House to give negotiations more time, and that Iran is deeply concerned about a US-Israeli strike once the midterms are over.

"There is some movement. We are waiting for the Iranian response," a regional source told Israel's Channel 12.

Neither government has confirmed the letter. A spokesperson for Vance declined to comment and the White House referred questions to the vice president's office, Israel National News reported. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said he had no information about the reported outreach.

Americans vote on November 3.