Abbas Araghchi | The diplomat on a tightrope

Seyed Abbas Araghchi may have one of the most difficult diplomatic jobs in the world today. His country just experienced its worst internal crisis in over four decades. Massive protests and armed unrest erupted across different parts of Iran in the first week of January, which were violently put down by security forces. At least 3,000 people were killed, according to official figures. The U.S. has sent what President Donald Trump calls “a massive armada” towards Iran. Mr. Trump had earlier said the U.S. was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters. The U.S. has deployed fighter jets, warships and an aircraft carrier strike group to West Asia. While the risk of military escalation remains high, the U.S. has also opened a direct diplomatic channel. “Time is running out for Iran” to make a nuclear deal, Mr. Trump said on January 28.

Mr. Araghchi responded in kind. Iran was “ready for a fair and equitable deal”, he said the next day, “but not for coercion”. He added that Iran’s armed forces “are prepared — with their fingers on the trigger — to immediately and powerfully respond to any aggression”. This summarises the challenge before him.

Iran is internally tense. It faces the threat of external attack. It is under heavy Western sanctions, and its economy is in serious trouble. An all-out war could be catastrophic. But Iran also doesn’t want to show signs of weakness. It doesn’t want to be another Iraq, Libya, Syria or even Venezuela. So the job before Mr. Araghchi is to seek the path of diplomacy without compromising key security interests, with one finger on the trigger.

On February 6, he went to Muscat, the Omani capital, to hold indirect talks with Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, and other officials. There was no breakthrough, but they agreed to meet again. The clouds of war have not lifted. But there seems to be a small window to continue the diplomatic engagement which has reduced the risk of an imminent military conflict.

Born in 1962 in the Shah’s Tehran, Abbas Araghchi came of age during the tumultuous period of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the monarchy and turned the country into an Islamic Republic in 1979. He earned an undergraduate degree from the Foreign Ministry’s School of International Relations and a master’s in political science from the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. Mr. Araghchi, who is fluent in Persian, Arabic and English, did his PhD at the University of Kent under the supervision of Professor David McLellan, an English scholar of Marxism. Mr. Araghchi’s thesis, titled ‘The Evolution of the Concept of Political Participation in Twentieth-Century Islamic Political Thought’, argues that modern Islamic political thought has sought to reconcile the absolute sovereignty of God with popular sovereignty, integrating elements of Western democracy with Islamic principles, according to a report by the Stimson Center.

Reformist promise

Mr. Araghchi rose quickly through the ranks of Iran’s foreign policy establishment. He started as an international relations expert at the Foreign Ministry in 1988, the year the Iran-Iraq war came to a close. His first major posting came in 1992, when he was appointed as a deputy ambassador to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation by President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. In 1999, when reformist Mohammad Khatami was the President, Mr. Araghchi became Iran’s ambassador in Finland. In 2007-2011, he also served as Iran’s ambassador in Japan, before serving as a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. But the real turning point in his career came in 2013 when he was appointed by President Hassan Rouhani as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Legal and International Affairs.

Mr. Rouhani, a moderate cleric who assumed the presidency after the chaotic years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had promised to rewrite Iran’s relations with the world and improve the country’s economic situation. He found a willing partner in U.S. President Barack Obama. Both sides started direct negotiations which culminated in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Under the agreement, Iran promised to curtail its nuclear programme, which it always claimed was for civilian purposes, in return for the lifting of international sanctions. The U.K., France, Russia, China, Germany and the EU also backed the deal. Mr. Araghchi, as a deputy of the then-Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, acted as the chief negotiator during the month-long discussions. The nuclear deal was seen as a major breakthrough for both the Obama administration as well as Iran’s rulers. Sanctions were lifted and Iran was allowed to trade freely and invite investments. But in May 2018, President Donald Trump, who was in his first term, unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Mr. Trump called the JCPOA “the worst deal” in America’s history. He adopted what he called a “maximum pressure” policy aimed at forcing Iran back to the table. Iran’s moderates felt betrayed. When Mr. Trump tore apart the deal, Tehran was fully compliant with the terms of the agreement, as per the IAEA. “We proved that diplomacy can resolve the most complex disputes. We showed that mutual respect and adherence to international law can create breakthroughs,” Mr. Araghchi once said about the nuclear deal. “We negotiated in good faith and we were met with bad faith,” he added, referring to the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement.

When Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner, succeeded Mr. Rouhani as Iran’s President, Mr. Araghchi was replaced by Ali Bagheri as the country’s chief nuclear negotiator. The U.S., then led by Joe Biden, and Iran had held multiple rounds of indirect talks in Geneva aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, but failed to make any breakthrough. Mr. Raisi was killed in May 2024 in a helicopter crash.

12-day war

Masoud Pezeshkian, a doctor-turned-politician, won the election on a platform of reform. Mr. Pezeshkian picked Mr. Araghchi to head the Foreign Ministry. Soon after Mr. Trump began his second term in January 2025, Iran and the U.S. started negotiations over the country’s nuclear programme. But those talks were undermined by Israel’s June 13 bombing of Iran. The U.S. also joined the war, carrying out attacks at Iran’s nuclear facilities, which Mr. Trump called a great success. Iran suspended the talks after the 12-day war, which ended in a ceasefire, and froze cooperation with the IAEA, effectively blocking any international monitoring of its nuclear programme. But within months, the Iran crisis would flare up again with street protests challenging Iran’s clerical rule and U.S. and Israel openly supporting the protesters.

Before the Muscat talks began, it was clear that the U.S. and Iran remained far apart even on the format of the negotiations. Mr. Araghchi had repeatedly said the discussions would focus solely on Iran’s nuclear programme. But the U.S. State Department stated that it wanted Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its support for regional militia groups to be included on the agenda. While it remains unclear what exactly was discussed on February 6, the divergence itself underscores the scale of the challenge before Mr. Araghchi.

In his PhD thesis, he wrote about reconciling Western democracy with Islamic principles. Now, as Foreign Minister, at a time of acute crisis for his country, Mr. Araghchi has to balance a deeply hostile and militarised America’s maximalist demands with his clerical government’s security concerns and core national interests. A formidable task indeed.

Published – February 08, 2026 01:40 am IST