Araghchi: Iran’s new FM pick who calls Nasrallah a ‘role model’

Abbas Araghchi, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator, has been nominated as the country's new foreign minister by recently elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, pending parliamentary approval.

Araghchi, born in Tehran in 1962, earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Kent in the UK.

Araghchi, who, like many Iranian officials, views former IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani as "Iran’s role model" and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah as "Lebanon’s role model," joined Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in the early days of the revolution in 1979.

In a 2013 interview with Panjereh, a weekly publication aligned with the IRGC, Araghchi reminisced about his time as a Revolutionary Guard, saying, "My heart remains with them, and I have carefully preserved the sacred uniforms from those days."

He also described Ali Khamenei as "our everything," and stated, "For me, he transcends the roles of leader and Supreme Leader; in a word, he is 'Agha' (Sire)."

Araghchi has one daughter and two sons. In the same interview, he mentioned that his son-in-law is a cleric, adding, "To me, the clerical robe is sacred; it embodies virtue and is without flaw."

In 1989, after his service with the IRGC, Araghchi worked as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia. In 1999, Araghchi was appointed as Iran's ambassador to Finland. He later served as Iran's ambassador to Japan from 2007 to 2011. Following his tenure in Japan, Araghchi returned to Iran, where he took on the role of Deputy for Asia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and briefly served as the ministry's spokesperson.

Role in foreign ministry during President Rouhani’s administration

Araghchi served as deputy to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during Hassan Rouhani's administration, playing a pivotal role in the negotiations that led to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. His involvement in the talks alongside Zarif brought Araghchi widespread recognition.

However, his experience in Iran's nuclear negotiations extended back to the tenures of Ali Larijani and Saeed Jalili as secretaries of the Supreme National Security Council. During the JCPOA negotiations, many viewed him as Khamenei's trusted representative on the nuclear team—a belief later validated by his subsequent appointments.

In the final days of Rouhani’s government in 2021, Araghchi, as head of the nuclear negotiation team, traveled to Vienna to lead talks on reviving the JCPOA with the Biden administration. However, the negotiations failed to produce any results, with Rouhani and Zarif attributing the failure to domestic sabotage and parliamentary interference.

When Ebrahim Raisi's administration took over, all members of Zarif's team were dismissed. However, Araghchi was appointed as the Secretary of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, a position he still holds today. The Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, established in 2006 by order of the Supreme Leader, has its members appointed directly by Khamenei.

Kamal Kharazi, head of the council, stated in October 2021, "The Leader's view on Abbas Araghchi was that he should be utilized within the council, leading to his appointment as secretary."

Under Raisi's administration, Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri-Kani, a close associate of hardliner politician Saeed Jalili, assumed the role of chief negotiator with the West. Bagheri-Kani was reported to have adhered to Jalili's negotiation strategies, which ultimately failed to produce any agreements. In 2013, Araghchi remarked on Bagheri-Kani, saying, "We differed in our negotiation approaches, but I had, and still have, great respect for him."

Family controversies and nephew’s corruption scandal

During his tenure as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Hassan Rouhani, Abbas Araghchi was indirectly involved in a corruption case.

His nephew, Ahmad Araghchi, appointed as Deputy for Foreign Exchange at the Central Bank in August 2017, was arrested in August 2018 on charges related to a foreign currency exchange corruption case.

At the time, conservative media outlets criticized Ahmad Araghchi’s appointment at the Central Bank as an example of "nepotism and family favoritism."

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary spokesperson at the time, accused Ahmad Araghchi of "disrupting the country’s economic, foreign exchange, and monetary system."

Ahmad Araghchi was released on bail two months after his arrest, but his legal ordeal continued. Initially, Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced him to eight years in prison as the case’s second defendant. However, the Supreme Court later overturned this sentence, reducing his sentence to fines, while the prison sentences of most other defendants were upheld.

Opposition to Iran’s Woman Life Freedom protests

During Iran’s "Woman, Life, Freedom" nationwide uprising, which spurred large-scale protests by the Iranian diaspora in support of demonstrators inside Iran, Abbas Araghchi, Secretary of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, stated, "We should not allow protests to be constantly held against us…Although I believe the Islamic Republic is stronger than this and won’t be shaken by these winds, we still must ensure that the damage does not escalate."

The new president’s prayer leader

With Masoud Pezeshkian’s confirmation as a presidential candidate, Araghchi, along with other former members of Rouhani’s government, threw his support behind him.

On June 8, 2024, during the election campaign, a photo emerged from Pezeshkian's campaign headquarters showing him and Zarif praying behind Araghchi. This image energized Pezeshkian's supporters and positioned Araghchi as the leading candidate for Minister of Foreign Affairs in the upcoming administration.

Now, with Pezeshkian’s presidency underway, Araghchi is poised to potentially return to the top position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is expected that he will face some tough opposition in parliament for his role in the nuclear deal, but if Khamenei has already agreed to his candidacy, he will eventually receive a vote of confidance.

Pezeshkian's administration, which pledged to reduce tensions in foreign policy, faced an immediate crisis when Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran just one day after the inauguration.

The killing of Haniyeh and the possibility of Iranian retaliation against Israel could shift the primary issue on Araghchi’s desk from reviving the JCPOA to addressing regional conflict.