Iran's security council chief Mohsen Rezaei met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday, a day after holding talks in Tehran with representatives of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, Reuters reported. Khamenei has not been seen in public since succeeding his slain father in March, and state media said he stressed the importance of pursuing Iran's interests and maintaining its conditions for ending the war.
Source: Reuters, Iran security chief meets Supreme Leader after talks with Mecca pact countries, Oct 27 2026
Iranian state media said that “safeguarding national and regional security by maintaining control over the Strait of Hormuz and strengthening bilateral relations with neighbouring countries” were among the topics Khamenei and Rezaei discussed. The narrow waterway carried around a fifth of the world's energy supplies before the conflict erupted in February, which is why its status matters well beyond the region — including for the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers in the Gulf and for fuel prices back home.
In its account of the meeting, the Leader's office said Khamenei placed a premium on securing Iran's conditions for ending the war and the state of “neither war nor peace”, and described the Supreme National Security Council and its secretariat as a “crossroads of policymaking”. Rezaei, it said, briefed him on Tehran's strategy of building “endogenous regional arrangements” with neighbouring states.
Source: Press TV, Leader puts premium on fulfillment of Iran's conditions for ending war, Oct 27 2026
Monday's talks were the first high-level contact between Iran and the three nations — which signed the Mecca mutual defence pact in August — since the war pulled Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi movement into direct conflict, Reuters said. An Iranian official told Reuters there would be no discussion of Iran's nuclear programme until Tehran's demands for ending the war were met; those conditions include an end to a US blockade of Iranian ports and to US sanctions on Iranian oil exports. US Vice President JD Vance said three weeks ago that Iran must reduce nuclear enrichment to end the war. Iran rejects Western concerns that its programme is military in nature.
The reported remarks moved markets slightly on Tuesday: Dow Jones reported oil futures fell about 1% after Khamenei was reported calling for an end to the “neither war nor peace” state — on Iran's terms — while Reuters reported Brent crude down about 1% at $114.81 a barrel as the Tehran diplomacy eased supply fears, despite renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia keeping prices elevated.