Bloomberg
As the US and Iran circle around peace talks, it’s worth recalling that an historic agreement with the Islamic Republic came into effect a decade ago.
The Iran nuclear deal was the result of repeated rounds of intense, multilateral negotiations that involved Europe’s biggest powers, China and Russia. Career diplomats and teams of experts spent hours behind locked doors poring over documents.
The reality facing the Middle East today and the Iranian and American officials who are overseeing a delicate ceasefire couldn’t be more different.
Back then, there was a reported shouting match between US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who later inspired a wave of pre-AI internet memes by warning European officials to “never threat an Iranian!”
A promenade walk between the top envoys triggered an angry backlash from hardliners in the Islamic Republic.
The diplomacy conducted by the present administration since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency has twice been derailed by US-Israeli military strikes rather than raised voices or a stroll.
Where Zarif faced seasoned US negotiators, his successor as foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi — a former Zarif deputy — has as his counterparts Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, whose background is in real estate.
Last week, Trump — who jettisoned the previous Iran accord during his first term — canceled a trip to Islamabad by Witkoff and Kushner that was expected to lead to further talks.
As economies begin to buckle under the strain of the conflict, there are growing signs of frustration within the international community over the standoff, and the lack of a clear US strategy.
Araghchi went ahead with his trip to Pakistan and bookended a diplomatic tour with a warm handshake with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg yesterday.
It was a diplomatic chess move that will not have gone unnoticed in Washington. — Golnar Motevalli