Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) — Well-informed sources have disclosed to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaidi is carrying a verbal message from U.S. President Donald Trump addressed to the Iranian leadership. This message, which al-Zaidi received during his recent official visit to Washington, comes as the U.S.–Iran confrontation edges closer to a broader war amid ongoing regional military escalation.
The sources from the Iranian Supreme National Security Council explained that the Iraqi Prime Minister’s stopover in the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday was specifically aimed at coordinating the core substance of this message with the Qatari side. Baghdad is seeking to evaluate the possibility of transforming this verbal message into a tangible Iraqi initiative that works in tandem with current mediation tracks led by Qatar and Pakistan to de-escalate regional tensions.
Diplomatic Tracks and the Backstage of the Upcoming Tehran Visit
- Timeline of the Visit: Prime Minister al-Zaidi’s state visit to Tehran is officially scheduled for next Thursday, though Baghdad has expressed full readiness to move the date forward if regional developments demand it.
- Iraqi Request for a Supreme Leader Meeting: The Iraqi delegation expressed a strong desire to leverage the special bilateral relationship between the two neighbors to make al-Zaidi the first foreign official to meet with Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
- Iranian Refusal Based on Security Protocol: The Iranian source completely ruled out the possibility of such a meeting, confirming that the Iraqi delegation was officially notified of the decision. The refusal was attributed to strict Iranian security anxieties regarding the potential exposure of the new Supreme Leader’s secure location, given that he has remained completely out of public sight since the outbreak of the war on Iran last February. Tehran noted that the standard official protocols and security footprint required for hosting a foreign prime minister would pose an unacceptable security risk.
- Alternative Intelligence Claims: In contrast to Tehran’s official justification, regional and Hebrew media outlets quoted an Israeli security source claiming that Mojtaba Khamenei is not actually inside Iranian territory. The intelligence source alleged that the strategic messages attributed to the Supreme Leader are entirely drafted by Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Ahmed Vahidi.
On the domestic front in Tehran, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is spearheading a political narrative that encourages the Iranian leadership to maintain its current stance and resist external pressures until the conclusion of the American elections. Zarif based his strategic view on recent communications he allegedly received from several U.S. Democratic politicians. According to his account, these American figures suggested that a potential electoral setback for Trump in November could push Congress to take decisive legislative action to halt the war.
Conversely, the governing domestic alliance uniting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf remains firmly committed to pursuing direct diplomatic understandings with Washington to end the crisis. The position of this moderate faction was recently reinforced following a directive issued by the Supreme Leader, which ordered an immediate halt to internal political public criticism of state officials.
This directive was translated into immediate action on the ground, as strict orders were handed down to hardline, ultra-conservative media outlets to completely cease their coordinated media campaigns against Pezeshkian and Qalibaf. The state warned that any violation of this freeze would result in severe regulatory and legal penalties, up to and including the permanent revocation of corporate media broadcasting licenses.
