The time leader of Iran,  , Mohammad Mokhber, appointed leading nuclear deal negotiator Ali Baqeri- Kani as the nation’s” caretaker” international minister following the death this week of predecessor Hossein Amir- Abdollahian.
Amir- Abdollahian, President Ebrahim Raisi, and six people died in a plane crash under strange conditions on Sunday. When their aircraft immediately crashed, the pair were returning home from an occasion in Azerbaijan. Before confirming that everyone aboard the aircraft had died on Monday, Irani officially described the fall as a “hard takeoff” and asserted that it was” not rough.”
A preliminary investigation, according to a report from the Egyptian Armed Forces, concluded on Thursday that there was no evidence that the aircraft had been shot along or had been the target of a criminal attack. It offered no explanation for its destruction, however, claiming that changes on the continued research will be forthcoming.
Baqeri has long been involved in Iranian government affairs and has a resume that includes work experience at the Supreme National Security Council ( SNSC ) and at Raisi’s judiciary. After Raisi’s ascendance to the president and America’s leave from the JCPOA under former President Donald Trump, Baqeri was given the task of leading discussions to overhaul the JCPOA, which he had publicly opposed at the time.
Amir- Abdollahian’s short term as Raisi’s top diplomat – he was appointed to succeed “moderate” Foreign Minister Javad Zarif after Raisi’s “election” in Iran’s usual sham political race in 2021 – was marked by extreme support for global terrorist organizations such as Hamas and virulent anti- Israel rhetoric. Amir Abdollahian threatened America on American soil during what would become one of his final major international tours in October, following the unimaginable Hamas siege on Israel.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, speaks during a joint press briefing with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian, attended by Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Bageri- Kani, left, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 23, 2022. ( AP Photo/Vahid Salemi )
” I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome expansion of the war in the region. They will not be spared from this fire, Amir Abdollahian told the UN General Assembly in New York.
Amir- Abdollahian was praised by Baqeri for his role as the rogue terror-sponsor state as an especially effective top diplomat following his appointment as interim foreign minister.
Iran’s relations with a number of neighbors were strained or severe when Amirabdollahian took office in 2021, according to Baqeri, who reportedly told Iran’s regime-friendly Tasnim News Agency. However, his successful actions over the past three years slowed the tensions and stabilized the good neighborliness policy as a key and real issue.
In a recent profile, United Against Nuclear Iran ( UANI), a group dedicated to preventing the regime’s use of illegal nuclear weapons, described Baqeri as” a hardline revolutionary diplomat who owes his career to familial connections and ties to the Supreme Leader.”
” His diplomatic record does not show much success, but he is an ideologue and has the right connections, which explains why he has been promoted throughout his career”, the organization explained.
Baqeri’s ascent, which UANI in part explained due to his , brother marrying one of” supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s daughters, took him to the , Supreme National Security Council but stalled during the administration of former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani, who preceded Raisi, was largely considered a “moderate” as his administration limited genocidal rhetoric against Israel and maintained communication with the Obama administration. Rouhani was responsible for the implementation of the JCPOA alongside Obama, which remains partially in vigor under the auspices of the other member states involved,  , Britain, China, France,  , Germany, and Russia. The United States left the deal in 2018 with apologies.
In exchange for promising to slow down Iran’s nuclear development, the former president’s administration’s key diplomatic accomplishment was the JCPOA, which lifted long-standing sanctions against the Iranian regime. In response, Iran allegedly violated the terms of the deal, and it lavishly increased military support and military support for regional terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Yemeni Houthi terrorist organization, and Shiite paramilitaries in Iraq, who are currently referred to as the” Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”
UANI brought up the fact that Baqeri carved out a niche in the Rouhani administration as a vocal opponent of the JCPOA on Iranian television before transitioning to the” Judiciary Human Rights Center,” an organization that Raisi then led, in 2019. When Raisi took over as president in 2021, he left Baqeri for Amir Abdollahian in favor of a top diplomat, and he gave him the task of representing Iran in negotiations to re-establish the JCPOA.
Joe Biden, the current president of the United States, attempted to undo his decision to leave the JCPOA and rekindle discussions with Iran after Trump’s presidency ended. Biden’s insistence on revamping the talks during “hardliner” Raisi’s term led to significant embarrassment in April 2021, when he sent an envoy, Robert Malley, to Vienna, Austria, where the remaining members of the JCPOA were planning to meet. The Iranian Foreign Ministry enthusiastically refuted the claim that American officials had met Malley for “indirect” talks with Iran.
No direct and indirect negotiations with the United States are on Iran’s delegation’s agenda, according to the Foreign Ministry, and no representative from the United States will attend the Joint Commission meeting or related expert meetings.
In the end, Malley reportedly attempted to elude formal discussions with negotiators from JCPOA countries while staying in a different hotel in Vienna, but the effort failed to bring any progress toward restoring America’s role in the nuclear deal.
Up until June 2023, Malley was a well-known Biden diplomat on Iranian affairs before he abruptly vanished. According to reports that the FBI was looking into Malley, possibly because of an Iranian intelligence operation, the State Department placed him on unpaid leave and stripped him of his security clearance.
Early in May, a dissident publication reported that Malley may have” transferred classified documents to his personal email and cell phone, which were then stolen by a hostile cyber actor.” At press time, there have n’t been any official clarifications from the Biden administration regarding Malley’s absence.
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