BlockBeats report, Aug. 17, citing Fox News: The U.S. President Trump today confirmed that there is a secret communication channel between him and officials of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Details from the behind-the-scenes negotiations between the U.S. and Iran that were exposed a few days ago reveal that the Trump administration bypassed Iranian negotiators to contact the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In mid-May this year, when U.S. negotiators tried to reach an agreement with Iran to end the war, they ran into a problem: they could not confirm whether the Iranian representative across the negotiating table truly represented the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which holds powerful influence. As a result, Trump administration officials took an unusual approach—bypassing the Iranian negotiator and directly contacting senior officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The person the U.S. chose to handle this secret backchannel was the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani. He has a very rare advantage: he enjoys the trust of both the U.S. and the senior leadership of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. One key reason the U.S. has found negotiations with Iran so difficult is that Washington cannot determine who truly holds decision-making power in Iran.