Iran's Mohsen Rezaei dismisses Trump's talk of a deal as 'imaginary'

Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran's security council, has accused the United States of inventing reports of negotiations with Tehran, telling Washington to stop producing what he called "fake news about imaginary talks." The Times of Israel reported that Rezaei also said it was time for the US to surrender to seven conditions Iran says it has set out again and again.

According to journalist Barak Ravid, whose reporting was carried by the Israeli broadcaster N12, Rezaei made the remarks in a post on X shortly after comments by US President Donald Trump. Ravid, as relayed by N12, said Rezaei described Trump's statements about negotiations with Iran as "imaginary" and urged the US to "surrender" to Iran's terms for bringing the war to an end. In the same post, according to N12, Rezaei wrote that the war had "crushed the American administration."

What Trump had said

Rezaei's post was a response to upbeat remarks from the White House. On the same day, The Times of Israel's live coverage recorded Trump saying there was a "good chance" a deal with Iran could be reached and that Tehran was "talking very politely." The same coverage reported Trump as saying the US would not launch a new offensive against Iran for now, citing "positive momentum" toward ending the conflict.

The two accounts therefore point in opposite directions. Trump described a diplomatic process that was moving forward. Rezaei, speaking for Iran's security establishment, denied that such talks exist at all and framed the only acceptable outcome as American acceptance of Iranian demands.

Who Mohsen Rezaei is

N12's report identifies Rezaei as secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the body that coordinates the Islamic Republic's defence and security policy and brings together senior political, military and intelligence officials. The Times of Israel describes him more briefly as Iran's security council chief and its top security official. Statements from the holder of this post are generally read as reflecting the thinking of Iran's security leadership rather than a personal view, which is why a public denial of this kind carries weight beyond a single social media post.

Why Israeli outlets are following it

Any exchange between Washington and Tehran over ending the war is followed closely in Israel, where the outcome bears directly on the country's security. The Times of Israel, an English-language news site based in Jerusalem, carried the remarks on its live blog. N12 is the news arm of one of Israel's main commercial television channels; its update relied on Ravid, a diplomatic correspondent who frequently reports on contacts between the US, Israel and Iran.

For readers abroad, the significance lies in the gap between the two capitals' public messaging. A US president speaking of polite exchanges and a pause in military action, and an Iranian security chief rejecting the existence of talks, leave the state of any diplomacy unclear from the public record alone.

What the reports do not say

• Neither outlet lists the seven conditions Rezaei referred to, so their content is not known from this material.
• No response from the White House or the US State Department to Rezaei's post has been reported.
• The reports do not say whether any channel of communication between the US and Iran is in fact active, or what evidence, if any, underlies Trump's account of Tehran's tone.
• There is no word on whether Rezaei's remarks reflect a formal position of the Iranian government beyond his own office.