On the 17th, US President Trump said secret communications between US officials
and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remain open and urged Iran
to "raise the white flag and surrender." He told Fox News the private channel
persists despite Iran's public confrontational posture, said his approach is
unrelated to the US midterm elections, and added "I have no timetable, I'm not
in a hurry." The IRGC rejected the claim as a "hallucination," saying its
officials have not held secret talks and calling Trump's statements a "lie" born
of "war failures and despair."
