Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, seemingly never goes anywhere alone.
In the wood-panelled corridors and rooms of a Foreign Ministry think tank in Tehran, he is permanently surrounded by aides, in a never-ending cycle of handshakes with foreign officials.
A dapper figure in a well-cut suit with salt-and-pepper hair, Mr Araghchi is now leading Iran’s delegation in talks with the US. If – and it still is an if – the two sides reach an agreement, Washington could lift sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limitations on its nuclear programme.
But this is not his first time in the negotiating seat: he was an architect of the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the JCPOA, which US President Donald Trump abandoned in his first term.
Mr Araghchi does not have an easy job. Talks have stumbled over the US's demand for zero uranium enrichment under any potential agreement, while Iran believes that it must retain the right to do so, with possible limitations.
Iran is also trying to negotiate with European countries to prevent the re-imposition of UN sanctions that could take place in October, amid what Tehran sees as more extreme positions in the West influenced by Iran hawks.
Trump administration officials, including Washington's senior nuclear negotiator, Steve Witkoff, have relatively little experience with such files.
“He [Araghchi] is a firefighter, actually, now,” Sasan Karimi, a former deputy vice-president for strategic affairs in the Iranian government, and a director at Nuclear Watch Network, a Tehran-based think tank, told The National.
Born into a wealthy carpet trading family in Tehran in 1962, Mr Araghchi served as a volunteer fighter in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. It was a conflict that is rarely discussed in the West but one that shaped the lives of millions of Iraqis and Iranians, including Mr Araghchi.
"In the war, he had experience with being in the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], and also got to know the behaviour and morals of a military environment,” Sayed Mohammad Ali Sayedhanaee, founder of the Tehran-based Nations Diplomacy think tank told The National. “Then he also got to know a diplomatic environment.”
A decade later, he studied at Kent University in the UK, where he obtained a doctoral degree in Islamic political thought. He then rose through the ranks of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, and served as ambassador to Japan and Finland before becoming deputy foreign minister.
After hardliner Ebrahim Raisi was elected as president and Hossein Amirabdollahian became foreign minister, Mr Araghchi joined the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations, a body that advises supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
When Mr Raisi and Mr Amirabdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash last year, and Masoud Pezeshkian became president, Mr Araghchi returned as foreign minister.
former deputy vice-president of Iran
Both to those familiar with his thinking, and publicly, Mr Araghchi is attempting to balance powers – both within Iran and globally.
“Our foreign policy is anchored in balance, realism and constructive pragmatism,” Mr Araghchi said in a speech at the Tehran Dialogue Forum, a recent conference hosted by the Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies.
With Mr Pezeshkian’s professional history dominated by domestic affairs, Mr Araghchi has room to work directly with Mr Khamenei on shaping Iran’s foreign policy.
More moderate, less conservative
A competent English speaker and familiar with the entire previous nuclear deal, he is well-placed to represent the country internationally, observers say. He is seeking to improve relations with both global powers and Middle Eastern neighbours, they add.
“In my opinion, Dr Araghchi's view is one of balancing the axes,” Mr Sayedhanaee said.
While the US has presented the ongoing nuclear talks as an opportunity for Iran, observers in Tehran say that the current political make-up of Iran’s government, including a seasoned Foreign Minister with negotiating experience, is a chance that the West should embrace, too.
“I think this is a golden window that this happens before this government [in Iran] comes to an end,” the researcher added.
Within Iran, Iranian observers say Mr Araghchi’s professional and personal background has enabled him to weigh the demands of the country’s multitude of political factions.
“From a political point of view, Araghchi is not a reformist,” Mr Karimi said, referring to a broad faction of Iran’s official politics which campaigns for a more open political system.
Mr Araghchi’s first wife was from a family involved in a prominent Islamist party, Motalefeh. But his time negotiating the first nuclear deal shaped his politics, too, Mr Karimi believes. “My feeling is that during JCPOA negotiations, he became more and more moderate and less conservative,” he said.
Still, his exposure to many different political currents has enabled him to appeal to a relatively broad base. His incremental, deliberate style has also helped him, observers say, to appeal to what Mr Karimi calls the “grey zone” of those who sit between more liberal factions and radical hardliners in Iran’s political spectrum.
“People are optimistic about him,” he said. “Because he could manage the negotiations with less noise, and gather all the forces to support him, and make the radical noises quieter.”
