Iranian war veteran leading nuclear conversations with the United States

Around the time a young real estate lawyer named Steve Witkoff was friends with Donald Trump in the 1980’s in New York, Abbas Araghchi was at the service of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the front line of the Iran-Iraq Brutal War.

Now, four decades later, the 62 -year -old is the personal selection of leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to lead Iran in talks with Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, who could determine if the country hits a nuclear agreement with the United States or descends in a military conflict.

Foreign Minister with British Education, known for his underestimated behavior, helped secure 2015 in 2015 nuclear agreement With the world powers Trump abandoned during his first term as President of the United States, an experience left by the diplomat well located to try to eliminate an agreement.

And, crucially, politicians, diplomats and analysts say that Araghchi stands out as someone who has managed to keep above the fierce political interface of Iran and cultivate support between rival factions. Retained at work under the reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian, he also has roots in conservative circles through his outstanding religious family and maintains links with the revolutionary guards.

“He is the right person at the right time to play a historical role and all political factions agree on this,” said Saeed Laylaz, a reformist analyst. “Its political, diplomatic and security credentials, together with their experience in nuclear conversations, have placed it in a unique position.”

The United States and Iran held on Sunday a fourth round of indirect conversations in Oman, with the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic, Esmaeil Baqaei, describing them as “difficult but useful”.

Unlike Araghchi, Witkoff had no previous diplomatic experience before Trump nominated him. However, they both enjoy all the confidence of their leaders, increasing the provisional hopes that a breakthrough may be possible, despite the huge distrust and complexity of reaching an acceptable agreement on both sides.

Iranian analysts believe that any potential agreement will partly affect the personal relationship of the two men. Araghchi, who is monitored in his public comments, has repeatedly said that he is “cautious optimism”.

The countries, however, appear very far from crucial issuesAnd some western and regional diplomats still believe that military conflict is a high possibility.

North -Americans have given various messages about what they expect from Tehran. Witkoff told Breitbart on Friday that the Islamic Republic had to dismantle its three main nuclear facilities and warned that if the talks do not advance Sunday, “then they will not continue and we will have to take a different route.”

“This is our red line. There is no enrichment. That means dismantling -,” he said. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the United States can accept Iran by maintaining a nuclear program if it stops enriching the country and matters fissile material.

This, in turn, is a red line for IranWhich insists that the country must be able to continue to enrich uranium for civil purposes. Iran said that he is willing to provide guarantees by ensuring the international community of the program’s peaceful intent.

By virtue of the joint action agreement (JCPOA) of 2015, Iran agreed to curb the strips of nuclear activity, but it was able to continue to enrich a limited amount of uranium up to 3.67 percent of purity. However, since the agreement collapsed, Iran has increased the enrichment to 60 percent, near the degree of weapons.

Araghchi has also resisted any U.S. attempt to expand conversations to include their missile capabilities and regional security strategy. Prior to Sunday’s talks, he said that Iran’s nuclear rights were “non -negotiable”. “Enrichment has been one of the successes of the Iranian people,” he said.

Western diplomats in Tehran respect what they say is Araghchi’s touch. He was born in Tehran with a well -known commercial family. After fighting for the Iran-Iraq war, he received a doctorate in politics at the University of Kent before entering the Foreign Service, acting as ambassador in Finland and Japan and became vice-foreign minister during previous nuclear conversations.

Araghchi was not a victim of the political struggle of former President Hassan Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, JCPOA architects who later were speakers by his hard roles in the agreement.

“Araghchi avoids controversial policy. This is a strength in the current climate,” said Rahman Ghahremanpour, an expert in foreign policies close to the former negotiators. “Even hardliners feel that they have a participation in the conversations, unlike before, when they were excluded and humiliated.”

The reformist president Pezeshkian has maintained a low profile, which the analysts interpret as a deliberate movement to avoid antagonizing hardliners and to give Araghchi Sala to relate to the revolutionary guards, Iran’s most powerful military institution with great political influence and Khamenei, who has direct access.

Laylaz said that while “the real leadership of the conversations falls to Mr. Khamenei and security forces,” the Foreign Minister is “so well coordinated with them that there is almost no lagoon in the process.”

The talks have arrived at a time when Iran has been involved in its most serious crisis since the 1980’s.

Israel has launched during the last 18 months offensive devastating against Iranian representation forces such as Hizbollah, while the Islamic Republic also lost a key ally with the collapse of the Assad regime a Syria. Tit-per-tat strikes with Israel exposed the vulnerabilities to Iran’s military infrastructure, with Israel who claimed to have achieved a component of the nuclear program of Iran.

The new North -American sanctions imposed under Trump, part of their “maximum pressure” campaign, have been added to economic vulnerability.

To relieve Iran’s isolation and accumulate support for a nuclear agreement, Araghchi has traveled widely in recent weeks, reporting allies such as Russia and China, as well as regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, which opposed the 2015 agreement, but now supports a diplomatic solution.

However, Araghchi knows that, without results, his political capital at home may never last.

“He is aware that JCPOA architects stand out and know he could happen to him,” said Ghahremanpour. “That is why he avoids exaggerated optimism. He always emphasizes that he is” cautiously optimistic “, in case the conversations fail.”