Two years ago, Iranian activists using Starlink phones to evade Iran's brutal theocratic regime thanked the company's CEO directly: It's "as if Elon Musk himself is delivering to me," one told Time Magazine. Now, though, Musk—still the richest man in the world but now also the president-elect's most powerful advisor—is negotiating directly with the mullahs' men.
This raises the question of whether Musk was meeting with Iranian officials on Trump's orders. According to the Times, Musk requested the meeting and the ambassador picked the location. The president-elect included the tech CEO on a phone call last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only hours after Trump won the election, so it wouldn't be Musk's first dip into Trump's foreign policy communications.
Musk has reportedly engaged in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Wall Street Journal report last month, and Russia is allied with Iran. Trump also has a worrying relationship with Putin and Russia, which raises questions about whether Musk's Monday meeting also has to do with Russia.
Whatever Musk is up to (speculation is intense because the new administration is beholden to both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russian president Vladimir Putin) they're not offering details. But the Iranian Foreign Ministry did, immediately:
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official said that the Iranian ambo told Musk during the meeting that he should receive sanctions exemptions from the Treasury Department and bring some of his businesses to Tehran!
Previously:
• Fake chain stores run rampant in Iran
• Iran: death penalty for 'corrupt weblogs'
• 900 pages of leaked Iranian spy cables reveal how America's failures after invasions allowed Iran to seize control of Iraqi politics
