Vance: "We’ll Set Up a Military Channel in Qatar, Where a CENTCOM Representative and an IRGC Officer Will Sit Together"

U.S. Vice President JD Vance revealed today (Thursday) in an interview with the website "UnHerd" that there is an intention to develop a military communication channel between the United States and Iran. According to him, the goal is to build a joint mechanism for U.S. Central Command and the Revolutionary Guards, which would be based in Qatar’s capital.

According to Vance, there is preliminary agreement for Tehran to place a representative from the Revolutionary Guards in Doha, who would sit near a CENTCOM representative, in order to directly manage incidents and disputes between the two militaries.

As previously reported, Vance said last week, following the first round of talks between the United States and Tehran held in Switzerland, that an additional mechanism would be established to monitor the ceasefire in Lebanon. That mechanism would include representatives from Iran, Pakistan, and Qatar, with no Israeli or Lebanese involvement.

"Israel Hayom" reported that there are disagreements within the American administration regarding the establishment of the mechanism. The professional and political ranks at the State Department, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, expressed opposition and warned that the mechanism is intended to serve as a tool for Iran to prevent the dismantling of Hezbollah. According to the report, officials in Israel expressed concern over the idea raised by Vance, but did not respond to it officially.

It should be noted that Rubio concluded talks in the United Arab Emirates, which opposes an agreement with Iran, and today began similar talks in Bahrain. The secretary of state, who yesterday emphasized that "it is impossible to end the conflicts in the region if Iran’s proxies continue to launch missiles," did not elaborate on the mechanism. However, he said the idea is to establish a technical tool "to reduce the fog of war surrounding border incidents."

Vance added: "Last Friday, we reactivated the monitoring mechanism, which had been dormant for some time. Now U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is sitting not only with the Israeli military command, but also with the Lebanese command. The purpose of the mechanism is to allow the United States to assess events on the ground for itself: whenever an incident occurs, we do not rely on anyone’s word. We can see the incident, define it, and quantify what really happened."