For years, an American flag had been painted on the ground at the entrance to Tehran's presidential palace, thereby forcing visitors to trample it underfoot, as a form of symbolic humiliation of the Islamic Republic's main enemy. In mid-January, a few days before the new US President Donald Trump's inauguration, several Iranian media outlets reported that the painted flag had been removed, backed by photos of the entrance. No official explanation have been given for the move. This decision, which comes at a time when increasing numbers of Iranian officials have called for direct negotiations with the United States in order to have the sanctions on the country lifted, represents a possible turning point in Tehran's diplomatic stance.

In mid-January, President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed, in an interview with NBC, that Tehran was willing to enter into talks with Washington "in principle." At the same time, Mohammad Javad Zarif, vice president for strategic affairs, tried to downplay the idea of direct negotiations with Trump, the architect of the "maximum pressure" policy against Iran and the man who had ordered the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, the special forces of the Revolutionary Guards, in Iraq, in 2020. "We have negotiated with Saddam Hussein in the past [to end the Iran-Iraq war]. Today, Donald Trump has become wise enough to abandon his maximum pressure policy," said Zarif, in an interview with an Iranian website. On January 14, Ali Abdolalizadeh, a presidential representative for the maritime economy, claimed that Tehran "has come to the conclusion that it is necessary to speak directly with American officials, without intermediaries or indirect messages."

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