Elon Musk, a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, met with Iran’s ambassador to the UN on Monday in New York in a session that two Iranian officials described as a discussion of how to defuse tensions between Iran and the US.
The Iranians said the meeting between Musk and ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani lasted more than an hour and was held at a secret location. The Iranians, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the meeting as “positive”. Asked about whether there was such a session, Trump’s communications director, said, “We do not comment on reports of private meetings that did or did not occur.” Musk did not respond.
Musk has emerged as the most powerful private citizen in the Trump transition, and has sat in on nearly every job interview. During a call last week with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president-elect handed the phone to the billionaire. Musk has played a key role in providing communications capability to Ukraine in the war with Russia.
An early direct meeting between a senior Iranian official and Musk raises the possibility of a change in tone between Tehran and Washington under the Trump administration, despite a charged history between the president-elect and Iran. One of the Iranian officials said that it was Musk who had requested the meeting and that the ambassador picked the site.
During his first term Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers and imposed tough economic sanctions on Iranian oil revenues and international banking transactions. He also ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani, in Iraq in 2020. In response, Iran’s supreme leader banned any negotiations with the Trump govt and Iranian officials vowed to avenge Suleimani’s killing. Federal prosecutors said in a court filing last week that Iran had plotted to assassinate Trump before the election. But in the wake of Trump’s election last week, Iran has been openly debating whether it can now reach a new and more lasting deal with the US.
