Vice President Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, via Qatari mediators around October 25 2026, proposing a framework and an early meeting for direct talks with Iran's nuclear programme on the agenda from the outset; Iran confirmed receipt on October 29 without a formal response, and a Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran on October 30. The outreach was reported as an attempt to head off a short, high-intensity strike after the midterms, for which President Trump had warned Gulf allies to prepare.