{"id":294706,"date":"2026-02-16T22:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294706\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:40:07","slug":"the-patience-and-the-poker-face-irans-wily-diplomat-set-to-face-the-us-in-nuclear-talks-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294706\/","title":{"rendered":"The patience and the poker face: Iran\u2019s wily diplomat set to face the US in nuclear talks | Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the US and Iran are to avoid a regional war<\/a>, both sides need to start to make concessions at talks in Geneva on Tuesday, and also to accommodate one another\u2019s very different bargaining styles.<\/p>\n

The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, steeped in almost 15 years of Iranian nuclear talks, is a near lifelong diplomat who has written a book on the art of negotiations that reveals the secrets of the Iranian diplomatic trade \u2013 the feints, the patience, the poker faces.<\/p>\n

He has a bachelor\u2019s degree from Iran\u2019s faculty of international relations, a master\u2019s degree in political science from Islamic Azad University and a doctorate in political thought from the University of Kent in the UK.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff studied law at Hofstra, a university on Long Island near New York, before making his fortune in property development.<\/p>\n

While Araghchi, much more a consensus figure inside Iranian politics than his famous predecessor Javad Zarif, will have gameplanned the parameters of what Iran can offer in endless consultations across the spectrum of government, including the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Witkoff works to a shifting brief devised by one man.<\/p>\n

Trump sees diplomacy as a branch of pro-wrestling. The Iranian foreign ministry regards it as a branch of chess, almost an art form.<\/p>\n

Indeed, for those in the US who claim Iran loves to play for time and spin a negotiation out, Araghchi\u2019s book, The Power of Negotiation, provides some support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main principle of bargaining is practice: repetition, repetition, and repetition \u2013 combined with steadfastness and persistence. Insisting on positions and repeating demands is a necessity that must be done each time with different rhetoric and reasoning,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

Born into a family of merchants \u2013 his grandfather was a carpet trader \u2013 he argues Iranian diplomacy reflects the country\u2019s bazaars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian negotiation style is generally known in the world as the \u2018market style\u2019, which means continuous and tireless bargaining. It requires a lot of time and energy, and he who gets tired and bored quickly will lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

More theoretically, he argues in the book \u2013 written when out of office in 2014 \u2013 that when a negotiator enters the room, their true power rests on the level of national cohesion back home and the country\u2019s military strength.<\/p>\n

If there is not at least a balance of power with your adversary, he argues it is best to decline talks until there is equilibrium, something Iran did after the bombing of its nuclear sites in June last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Iranian tendency to say \u201cYes, but\u201d can go far. Famously, Araghchi reduced his US counterpart Wendy Sherman to tears of frustration \u2013 something he regrets.<\/p>\n

Araghchi, who has already had six rounds of direct and indirect talks in two phases with Witkoff also discloses how vital it is to remain opaque.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe face of a skilled diplomat is inscrutable, and it is impossible to catch any emotion from it. The ability to control the expression of emotions on the face is not easy and requires continuous work and practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Providing your adversary with a graceful way out, he argues, is integral to diplomacy, describing this as providing \u201cthe Golden Bridge\u201d, a term he has picked up from China (Araghchi spent four years as ambassador to Japan).<\/p>\n

This suggests that if Trump ends up accepting a version of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which he walked out in 2018, Araghchi will not be triumphalist. \u201cDiplomacy is not a game that you must necessarily win, but a process where you must necessarily understand the other side,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

Married twice, and with five children, Araghchi is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war and maintains close relations with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC, unlike his predecessor, Zarif, who criticised the elite forces\u2019 power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAraghchi is much more technocratic and careful in walking the tightrope necessary to survive,\u201d said Ellie Geranmayeh from the European Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cZarif was more political and outspoken, and willing to test the boundaries of what was digestible for the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, some thought Araghchi was put in the nuclear talks with Washington by Iranian conservatives to act as a check and balance on Zarif.<\/p>\n

Geranmayeh expects the US to make clear demands on diluting, or removing Iran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but such an irreversible step by Iran would require parallel irreversible steps by the US, such as releasing many of Iran\u2019s large assets frozen abroad.<\/p>\n

The scope for a compromise on enrichment exists on the basis that the bombing of its nuclear sites makes it impossible to enrich for 3 to 5 years. But this would require the return of the UN nuclear inspectorate, the IAEA, to be able to visit the bombed sites, an issue that was probably at the centre of talks on Monday between Araghchi and Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general.<\/p>\n

Outside the nuclear aspects of the deal, Geranmayeh says: \u201cIn this Trumpian world, do not expect every agreement to be written down on paper. There could be a series of not verifiable understandings, including a non-aggression pact between Iran and the US and its allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Ansari, professor of modern history at the University of St Andrews, said Iran may offer concessions \u201cto keep the discussions going, but Trump is in no rush at present anyway\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bringing in US oil companies \u2013 an economic concession that has been floated \u2013 would be a significant change in Iran\u2019s anti-US revolutionary doctrine.<\/p>\n

Either way, Araghchi knows that whatever the outcome, he faces domestic criticism.<\/p>\n

Araghchi recalled once meeting with Zarif in the lift of Hassan Rouhani\u2019s residence after the latter\u2019s 2013 presidential election victory. At the time, Zarif had not yet accepted Rouhani\u2019s offer to serve as his foreign minister. Araghchi asked him why. Zarif replied: \u2018In the end, we\u2019ll be found wanting, and we will be the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the US and Iran are to avoid a regional war, both sides need to start to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-294706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}