Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, was appointed on Monday May 20 as head of Iran’s diplomacy on a provisional basis following the death of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in a nuclear accident. helicopter. He has been designated “responsible for the government’s foreign relations committee,” announced government spokesperson Ali Bahadori Jahromi, as tensions are high between Iran and Israel in the context of the war in Gaza.
Considered close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Mr. Bagheri, 56, was appointed in September 2021 deputy foreign minister and chief negotiator in charge of the nuclear file.
Nuclear power, “a key tool to guarantee national interests”
After the agreement was reached in 2015, Bagheri repeatedly criticized the former moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani for accepting restrictions on the country’s nuclear program and allowing “foreigners” to access Iranian sites.
However, in September 2023, he defended negotiations with the West and criticized “those who, under the guise of defending values, try to give the negotiation an anti-values aspect” arguing a deprivation for “the Islamic Republic of a tool -key and important to ensure national interests”.
Negotiations have stalled since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, at the initiative of former President Donald Trump.