According to ChainCatcher, citing three people familiar with the matter, US negotiators ran into a key problem in mid-May while trying to secure an agreement with Iran to end the war: they could not tell whether the Iranian officials across the table actually spoke for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, one of the country’s most powerful forces. The report says Trump administration officials then used an unusual channel, bypassing Iran’s negotiators and making direct contact with senior IRGC figures. The person chosen to handle that secret line was Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, who was described as enjoying the trust of both Washington and the IRGC leadership. The episode, the report said, highlighted a core obstacle in US-Iran diplomacy: Washington could not clearly determine who held real decision-making power in Iran. The two sides did eventually reach a memorandum of understanding, but it soon collapsed.

Axios, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that U.S. negotiators ran into a basic problem in mid-May while trying to reach an agreement with Iran to end the war: they could not tell whether the Iranian officials across the table actually spoke for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a power center with major influence inside the country. According to the report, that uncertainty led Trump administration officials to take an unusual step and open direct contact with senior IRGC figures instead of relying only on Iran’s formal negotiators. The person chosen to handle the secret backchannel was Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, who the report said was trusted by both Washington and the IRGC leadership. Axios said the episode highlighted a core obstacle in U.S.-Iran diplomacy, namely Washington’s inability to determine who truly holds decision-making power in Iran. The two sides eventually reached a memorandum of understanding, but the arrangement quickly fell apart.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the conflict between Washington and Tehran is no longer in its opening phase and has moved into what he called the “middle game,” with the White House using diplomatic, economic, and military tools at the same time. According to Xinhua, citing CNN, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine has privately argued that the U.S. needs an “off-ramp” from the Iran campaign, warning that airstrikes alone are unlikely to achieve all of President Donald Trump’s stated objectives while escalation carries clear downsides. The report also said U.S. munitions inventories have come under strain, including THAAD interceptors, Patriot missiles, and Tomahawk cruise missiles. On the Iranian side, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Zolghadr laid out six conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including a military withdrawal, the lifting of all sanctions, and compensation for war losses. Tehran is also in technical talks with Oman over a temporary shipping route, but Iranian officials said that would not amount to a full reopening of the strait.

A spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz depends on the United States fully accepting Iran's conditions, and stressed the matter is separate from negotiations between Iran and Oman. The remarks add fresh uncertainty over the vital Gulf shipping lane.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Shelbit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, along with its founder, over allegations that the platform moved money to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). OFAC data cited in the action shows that more than $3 million flowed between wallets connected to the exchange and wallets associated with the IRGC. Shelbit is registered in Georgia and operates from Dubai. Its founder allegedly ran the business through a network of shell companies established across several countries. The sanctions follow an investigation by Reuters that relied on blockchain data. Shelbit has been added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Any assets the exchange holds in the United States are frozen, and third parties that engage in transactions with Shelbit could face secondary sanctions risk. Techub News reported the development, and the case was covered by Spaziocrypto.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 8 sanctioned two Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether, saying they were used to move crypto at scale, evade U.S. sanctions, and support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other entities Washington designates as terrorist organizations. OFAC also designated Shelbit operator Siavash Kayvanpour and several companies it said he controls in Georgia, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates. According to the Treasury, wallets linked to the IRGC sent more than $1 million in crypto to Shelbit and received more than $2 million back, while wallets tied to Kayvanpour allegedly transferred more than $2 million to Nobitex, which the Treasury described as Iran’s largest crypto exchange. Treasury also said Shelbit served a network of more than 2,000 gambling websites accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars through digital assets. Before the sanctions announcement, Reuters reported that Shelbit had processed at least $4 billion in transactions over the past two years. Treasury said Aban Tether handled millions of dollars in transactions involving Nobitex and previously sanctioned platforms including Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex.

The US Treasury Department has removed three Iranian airlines and two aircraft from its counterterrorism sanctions list, entities that had previously been sanctioned over links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The move was made under Executive Order 13224, according to Techub News, citing CryptoBriefing. At the same time, Treasury made clear that its enforcement stance toward the cryptocurrency sector remains tight. The department had already sanctioned Nobitex, described in the report as Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in June 2026. Analysis cited by CryptoBriefing said the latest delisting has no direct impact on the crypto market. Even so, it points to continued sanctions pressure on digital-asset activity tied to the IRGC, and suggests that any crypto platform worldwide that facilitates transactions for designated entities could face the risk of being added to the sanctions list.

Fox News reported on August 5 that the U.S. Treasury Department has removed some Iran-related sanctions from its website. A Treasury official said the removal does not represent any shift in U.S. policy toward the Iranian government, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, any designated terrorist organization, or their supporters and proxies. The official added that the removal is part of normal administrative procedures and was conducted after a review of the specific circumstances related to Baghdad Air, which is also known as Fly Baghdad. Earlier, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published an update titled “Revocation of Counterterrorism Designations” on its official website. That update lifted some Iran-related sanctions and removed Fly Baghdad from the sanctions list. Fly Baghdad had previously been placed on the counterterrorism sanctions list because of its association with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. The removal from the list came as part of the same administrative review, according to the Treasury official.