During an April 29 speech addressing Iran’s police force commanders, Qasem Soleimani of the Quds Force - the foreign operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) -  weighed in on one of the hot topics in Iranian media: direct talks between Iran and the United States.

“The enemy [America] wants to drag us to the negotiating table through economic pressure, and this type of negotiation is an example of submission,” Soleimani said. “But our people are smart and intelligent and believe that negotiations with the enemy under current conditions is pure surrender and certainly we will not give in to this humiliation.”

With the recent replacement of Mohammad Ali Jafari as commander of the IRGC, Soleimani is definitely the most recognizable face of the IRGC both inside and outside of Iran. Given that he is not political in nature and a man of few words, and that he weighed in on this issue during a time when Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in the United States discussing with American media possible prisoner swaps with the United States, Soleimani appears to have been sending a signal to the Donald Trump administration on the IRGC’s current position regarding any direct talks.

Zarif’s media interviews in the United States, which he gave while attending a United Nations conference, have definitely caught the attention of Iranian media. Hard-line Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is chosen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office, took exception with a comment Zarif made in which he said Iran is ready to discuss prisoner swaps but the United States has not responded. The article stated that given that the United States has already exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and has a history of breaking pacts, Zarif is “recommending negotiations from a position of weakness and passivity.”