Elon Musk met Iran’s ambassador to the UN a day before he was made joint head of Donald Trump’s new cost cutting department, the BBC’s US partner CBS has confirmed.
The meeting took place at ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani ‘s residence in New York, with the aim of discussing how to ease tensions between the two nations, according to the New York Times which first reported the story.
It is not clear if President-elect Trump or his national security team were aware of the meeting.
Several of the recent appointees to Trump’s national security team, including Mike Waltz and Marco Rubio are known Iran hawks, believing the US should take a tough stance against Iran.
The US does not have diplomatic relations with Tehran but a private meeting with Musk provided a workaround, allowing Iran to avoid a meeting with an American official, according to the New York Times.
The newspaper also said that Musk requested the meeting with the ambassador, and that it was described by Iranian officials as “positive” and “good news”.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said “We do not comment on reports of private meetings that did or did not occur.”
The Iranian mission to the UN and the White House declined a request for comment from CBS News.
During his first term as president, Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal, brokered in 2015 during Barack Obama’s presidency, and reinstated harsh economic sanctions which largely prohibit US companies from doing business in Iran.
Trump also ordered the air strike which killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
The president-elect is also a strong supporter of Israel, which has been at war with the Iranian-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel last year.
Musk was recently appointed joint head of Donald Trump’s new cost cutting department, which will advise on government cost cutting but will not be an official arm of the government.
The tech billionaire and Tesla boss also joined Trump in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and has played a key role in providing communications to Ukraine’s military via his Starlink satellite internet system.