Iran’s parliament confirmed an experienced diplomat trusted by the country’s hard-liners as its new foreign minister as the government prepares for a possible return to nuclear negotiations in coming weeks.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is expected to closely follow the line set by Iran’s conservative new President Ebrahim Raisi, who has said he wants to restore the 2015 nuclear deal while resisting U.S. efforts to negotiate a wider agreement that might limit Iran’s influence across the Middle East.
Mr. Raisi has also said he wants Iran’s new foreign policy to focus on improving Iran’s regional ties and influence, an area on which Mr. Amir-Abdollahian has spent much of his career. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is the main decision maker on all major strategic issues, including the nuclear deal.
Mr. Amir-Abdollahian was first promoted into the government under hard-line former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Political analysts note his close ties to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its former foreign forces leader, Qassem Soleimani, killed by the U.S. in 2020.
However, Western officials also say Mr. Amir-Abdollahian, 57, is a pragmatist who has dealt directly with U.S. officials before. He was one of several Iranian diplomats involved in talks on the security situation in Iraq with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker in 2007.
European diplomats who have spoken with the new foreign minister in recent weeks say he has been clear that he wants to continue negotiations on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal and that he is someone the West can work with.
“Obviously yes. I mean he is a career diplomat—very well experienced," said a senior European Union official. “It is absolutely somebody we can do business with.
Mr. Raisi has appointed a number of former IRGC officials to his government, including several who, like the new president, are subject to U.S. sanctions.
Talks on the nuclear deal broke off in late June, with Iran spending much of the summer in discussions about the best posture to take in talks. Western officials are hopeful that talks can resume in September but say it isn’t clear if the Raisi government will harden Iran’s conditions for restoring the nuclear deal in ways that would make a return to the deal impossible for Washington.
Henry Rome, senior Iran analyst at Eurasia Group in Washington said that beyond the nuclear issue Mr. Amir-Abdollahian is unlikely to prioritize relations with the West.
The new foreign minister “spent his diplomatic career focused on the Arab world, implementing and defending aggressive policies designed to expand Iranian regional influence," Mr. Rome wrote in a recent analysis. “His selection reflects Raisi’s desire to focus Iran’s foreign policy closer to home and his disinterest in improving ties with the West."
The 2015 nuclear agreement provides Tehran relief from the sanctions in return for limiting the scope of its nuclear program, which Iran says is to develop nuclear energy.
Since the Trump administration pulled out of the agreement in May 2018, Iran’s currency has slid 80% against the dollar, fueling inflation and street protests and falling living standards. The Covid pandemic has added to the economic pressure facing Iran.
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Mr. Khamenei in July criticized the previous administration led by former President Hassan Rouhani as being too na？ve in dealing with the West. Mr. Amir-Abdollahian replaces Javad Zarif, a key architect of the 2015 nuclear deal, at the foreign ministry.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
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