Iran-US talks over Tehran’s nuclear program hinge on a billionaire and a seasoned diplomat

DUBAI United Arab Emirates AP As far as biographies go the two men in charge of the delicate negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran s rapidly advancing nuclear effort couldn t be more different On the American side billionaire real estate magnate Steve Witkoff leads the effort by President Donald Trump s administration to restrict Tehran s atomic venture which they fear could allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon The Bronx-born developer finds himself tapped by Trump to deliver on the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war as well two conflicts that show no signs of stopping Representing Iran is Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who like multiple of his generation is a veteran of the bloody Iran-Iraq war He rose through the ranks of Iran s diplomatic corps and served as a trusted negotiator during the talks that led to Iran s nuclear deal with world powers Whether the two men find common ground in the high-stakes negotiations with a second round due to take place Saturday in Rome could mean success or failure in the talks At peril is a viable American or Israeli military strike on Iran s nuclear sites or the Iranians following through on their threats to pursue an atomic weapon Abbas Araghchi Arriving in Tokyo as Iran s new ambassador in Araghchi received the equivalent of a diplomatic rave review from the U S Embassy of all places Araghchi is a young personable polished and accomplished diplomat Anyone with a limited understanding of the facts would walk away after hearing him with the idea that Iran has bent over backwards and tried everything accomplishable to please the West without effect a March cable on Araghchi disclosed by WikiLeaks reads Even when he expressed Iran s willingness to defy the international neighborhood his message was delivered evenly and in a rational tone He exudes an air of understated yet passionate belief in the position he is arguing The low-key style has been a trademark of Araghchi who has systematically walked the line between hard-liners and reformists within Iran s theocracy It starkly contrasts with the more emotional style of then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who reached the nuclear deal with world powers and struck a close relationship with then-U S Secretary of State John Kerry Araghchi who handled various negotiations for the deal remarked on the magnitude of their work the closer the deal came to fruition describing the accord as one of the greater part essential documents in Iran s history Two and a half years of intense negotiations had reached their nerve-wracking final moments Araghchi wrote in a portion of A Sealed Secret The JCPOA A Great Effort for the Rights Shield and Progress of Iran a book in Farsi on the talks Our nightly sleep was reduced to about one hour Hundreds of millions of people around the world were watching and million Iranians were anxious and waiting Born in Isfahan into a wealthy religious merchant family Araghchi bears the the honorific seyed marking him as a direct descendant of Islam s Prophet Muhammad He was a teenager when the Islamic Revolution overthrew the shah and installed the country s theocracy Araghchi joined the Revolutionary Guard and fought in the - war against Iraq though details about his facility aren t publicly known The Guard then was not the massive organization it is in the current era a paramilitary arm of Iran overseeing its ballistic missile arsenal with deep interests in the country s financial sector While broadly avoiding disagreement politics have affected his career in the past Under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Araghchi located himself posted to Japan in the first place as part of a power struggle within the authorities over nuclear negotiations at the time Put Araghchi aside Mr Ahmadinejad had communicated Iran s foreign minister at the time Araghchi recounted in Iran-Taishi Memoirs of Seyed Abbas Araghchi Ambassador of Iran to Japan a memoir of his time in Tokyo Not only from the negotiators company but also from the position of deputy foreign minister in charge of international affairs Steve Witkoff Speaking before the Republican National Convention in July Witkoff discovered himself fully catapulted from the world of real estate into politics But it was talking about his son Andrew who died in that humanized him to delegates When I lost my boy Andrew to an opioid overdose the pain was unbearable Witkoff communicated the thousands there But as usual Donald Trump displayed up That long close relationship with Trump includes being with the president on a Florida golf class when he was targeted in an assassination attempt in September And the president since has entrusted Witkoff with particular of the most-challenging situations he faces when it comes to global geopolitics To Trump whose whole identity as a businessman and politician has revolved around making deals Witkoff represents someone he can understand Forbes estimates Witkoff s wealth at around billion made through his Witkoff Group which has developed apartment buildings golf courses and hotels in the U S and internationally He s also done business with Mideast sovereign wealth funds which often serve as direct vehicles of the region s autocratic rulers After Trump won the balloting Witkoff worked with the outgoing Biden administration to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in January Witkoff who is Jewish worked on convincing Israel to agree to the terms Israel is Iran s archenemy in the Mideast and has threatened to destroy it repeatedly over the years The ceasefire collapsed however on March after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians across Gaza Both Israel and the U S blamed the renewed hostilities on Hamas refusal to release more hostages before negotiations on ending the war proceed which was not part of the ceasefire agreement Then there s the high-level negotiations over Russia s war on Ukraine So far that war has yet to end despite Trump s diplomatic campaign particularly a series of talks held in Saudi Arabia Witkoff has met Russian President Vladimir Putin himself as part of that push Witkoff attended talks on the war in Ukraine with European allies just before the second round of negotiations with Iran While successfully making it through the first round of negotiations with Araghchi and meeting him face to face Witkoff has faced the challenge of negotiating over Iran He made a television appearance in which he suggested enrichment for Iran could be something the countries could agree on But that s exactly the terms set by the nuclear deal struck under U S President Barack Obama from which Trump unilaterally withdrew America Witkoff hours later issued a declaration underlining something A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization scheme Witkoff added That straightaway drew rounds of criticism from Iran which long has maintained it should have access to enrichment Vahdat announced from Tehran Iran Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this account The Associated Press receives advocacy for nuclear safety coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape https apnews com projects the-new-nuclear-landscape Source