{"id":698,"date":"2026-06-27T09:05:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T09:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698"},"modified":"2026-06-27T09:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T09:05:59","slug":"meet-the-iranians-leading-negotiations-with-jd-vance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698","title":{"rendered":"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Vice President JD Vance leads negotiations aimed at ending the war against Iran and delivering on the administration\u2019s promise that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, one major question looms over the whole process. <\/span>Can we trust Iran?<\/p>

Read more Anti-Landlord Socialist Has A Family Landlord Problem<\/a><\/p>

The U.S. negotiating team has signaled that Iran\u2019s team has shown itself to be much more pragmatic than Iranian negotiators in the past. Little attention, however, has been paid to who exactly these more pragmatic Iranians are.<\/span><\/p>

Iran\u2019s delegation is not composed solely of career diplomats. The team includes former Revolutionary Guard commanders, officials tied to violent crackdowns on protesters, figures accused of human rights violations, and regime insiders linked to corruption scandals and political repression.<\/span><\/p>

Their records offer a revealing look at the team helping shape the Iranian regime\u2019s approach to the West and its response to dissent at home. <\/span><\/p>

Here are the three top men representing Tehran in negotiations with the United States.<\/span><\/p>

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf<\/b><\/h4>
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>

As speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has emerged as one of the key figures representing Tehran in negotiations with the Trump administration.<\/span><\/p>

A veteran of the U.S.-designated terror organization, the <\/span>Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ghalibaf has spent more than four decades in some of the regime\u2019s most powerful positions, including commander of the IRGC Air Force, chief of Iran\u2019s national police, mayor of Tehran, and, since 2020, speaker of parliament.<\/span><\/p>

Across that span, Ghalibaf has faced repeated allegations of corruption and human rights abuses while earning a reputation as one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most prominent enforcers of violent suppression of civilian protests.<\/span><\/p>

During the July 1999 student protests, he was one of 24 senior IRGC commanders who <\/span>signed a letter<\/span> warning then-President Mohammad Khatami that the military would intervene if his government failed to crush the demonstrations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In a leaked 2013 audio recording, he allegedly <\/span>boasted<\/span> about personally assaulting student protesters, saying photographs showed him riding on the back of a motorcycle \u201cbeating them with wooden sticks,\u201d before adding, \u201cI was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that. I didn\u2019t care I was a high ranking commander.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

He went on to describe his role in later efforts to suppress dissent, including the 2003 student demonstrations, claiming he pressured officials to authorize security forces to enter university campuses and use force against protesters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI went to the National Security Council meeting and raised hell, spoke very harshly. Didn\u2019t observe proper protocol and I told them as head of the Police, I will demolish anyone who would show up tonight on the campus to protest,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Discussing the mass protests that followed Iran\u2019s disputed 2009 presidential election, Ghalibaf boasted that Tehran\u2019s municipality played such a significant role in suppressing the unrest that officials ranked it among the government\u2019s top-performing institutions in responding to the protests.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAlthough the Mayoralty is not a security agency, we were ranked third in how well we responded\u2026 and this is amongst intelligence-security organs, not all state organs,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>

The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died after being detained by Iran\u2019s morality police for allegedly violating the country\u2019s mandatory hijab law, sparked nationwide anti-regime protests in 2022. Ghalibaf dismissed the demonstrations as an effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and called for those <\/span>he accused<\/span> of threatening public order to be dealt with harshly.<\/span><\/p>

As the regime carried out a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests in late 2025 and early 2026, with some estimates placing the <\/span>death toll<\/span> as high as 32,000, Ghalibaf defended the government\u2019s response at a state-organized \u201cIranian Uprising Against American-Zionist Terrorism\u201d rally. Speaking to the crowd, <\/span>he portrayed<\/span> the unrest as foreign-backed terrorism, arguing Iran was fighting a \u201cwar against terrorism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Ghalibaf has also faced repeated corruption allegations, including during his tenure as Tehran\u2019s mayor, when his administration was accused of improperly transferring valuable municipal properties to politically connected insiders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Years later, as Iran struggled with inflation topping 40%, he was <\/span>engulfed<\/span> by the 2022 \u201cSismonigate\u201d scandal after members of his family were photographed returning from Turkey with luxury baby goods and nearly 20 pieces of luggage. The scandal sparked calls for his resignation. It deepened further after reports that members of his family had also purchased two luxury apartments in Istanbul worth roughly $1.6 million.<\/span><\/p>

Read more Gavin Newsom Takes Coward\u2019s Way Out On Major Left-Wing Demand<\/a><\/p>

Despite four unsuccessful<\/span> presidential campaigns, repeated corruption allegations, and more recent attacks from hardline lawmakers over negotiations with the United States, Ghalibaf has remained one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most influential political figures. His critics have accused him of shielding the negotiations from parliamentary scrutiny and crossing Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s red lines, reported Iran International.<\/p>

Abbas Araghchi<\/b><\/h4>
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>

As Iran\u2019s foreign minister and one of the regime\u2019s longest-serving nuclear negotiators, Abbas Araghchi has become the face of Tehran\u2019s diplomacy with the West.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Araghchi has spent more than two decades <\/span>climbing the ranks<\/span> in the Islamic regime. After earning a Ph.D. from England\u2019s University of Kent, he served as Iran\u2019s ambassador to Finland and Japan, Foreign Ministry spokesman, deputy foreign minister, chief nuclear negotiator, and, in 2024, foreign minister.<\/span><\/p>

To Western audiences, Araghchi is often viewed as a seasoned diplomat. But before entering the Foreign Ministry, he spent nine years serving in the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War.<\/span><\/p>

The IRGC remains one of the most powerful pillars of the Islamic Republic and has long been accused of supporting terrorism abroad and brutally suppressing dissent at home.<\/span><\/p>

Araghchi has consistently defended the regime\u2019s hardline positions toward the United States and its allies. Following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, he <\/span>accused<\/span> Washington of committing \u201ca grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT\u201d and warned the attacks would have \u201ceverlasting consequences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Araghchi has also brushed off Western criticism of the regime\u2019s human rights record. In 2023, amid global demonstrations supporting Iran\u2019s protest movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, Araghchi urged Iranian officials to prevent demonstrations against the Islamic Republic from taking place abroad. He argued the protests were fueling an effort to \u201cdefame and delegitimize\u201d the regime and warned the campaign was \u201cvery dangerous\u201d because it was harming Iran\u2019s relationships with other countries.<\/span><\/p>

During the regime\u2019s squashing of the protests in January 2026, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Tehran of using \u201cdisproportionate and brutal violence\u201d against demonstrators. Araghchi <\/span>dismissed<\/span> the criticism, arguing Germany had forfeited its credibility on human rights because of its support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>

Ali Bagheri Kani<\/b><\/h4>
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>

Another key figure in Iran\u2019s delegation is Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council and a longtime regime insider whose career has taken him through Iran\u2019s security establishment, judiciary, and nuclear negotiating team.<\/span><\/p>

Bagheri Kani\u2019s rise through the Islamic Republic has been closely intertwined with one of the regime\u2019s most influential political families. His father, Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani, is a prominent cleric and former member of parliament and the Assembly of Experts. His uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, served as acting prime minister, interior minister, and later chaired the Assembly of Experts. His brother is married to a daughter of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, <\/span>according to Al Jazeera<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>

He <\/span>served<\/span> as deputy foreign minister for political affairs and briefly as acting foreign minister after Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was killed in a 2024 helicopter crash.<\/span><\/p>

He also held senior positions in Iran\u2019s judiciary, serving as deputy for international affairs and secretary of the regime\u2019s Human Rights Headquarters, which is responsible for defending Iran\u2019s human rights record on the international stage.<\/span><\/p>

He also <\/span>worked<\/span> under hardline negotiator Saeed Jalili from 2007 to 2013, when the Supreme National Security Council handled the country\u2019s nuclear file. <\/span>Bagheri Kani managed Jalili\u2019s 2013 presidential campaign, defending his confrontational approach to negotiations while opposing then-candidate Hassan Rouhani\u2019s push for a nuclear agreement with the West. He later <\/span>defended<\/span> Iran\u2019s strategy of stalling negotiations, saying Tehran deliberately sought to \u201cbuy time\u201d so work at the Fordow and Arak nuclear facilities could continue.<\/span><\/p>

After Rouhani took office and pursued President Barack Obama\u2019s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Bagheri Kani became one of its most outspoken critics. He <\/span>repeatedly attacked<\/span> the negotiations in parliament, wrote op-eds condemning the agreement, and argued it was a Western trap that surrendered Iran\u2019s sovereignty. He later described Iran\u2019s negotiations with the United States as \u201ca bitter historical experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

In 2021, <\/span>he became<\/span> Tehran\u2019s chief nuclear negotiator and led the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the very agreement he had spent years opposing.<\/span><\/p>

Bagheri Kani has consistently taken a hard line against the United States. He denounced what <\/span>he called<\/span> Washington\u2019s \u201cunlawful and inhumane sanctions,\u201d argued in <\/span>July 2024<\/span> that the U.S. \u201ccannot be part of the solution\u201d in the Middle East but is instead \u201cthe main obstacle,\u201d and, <\/span>in June<\/span>, he accused Washington of seeking to \u201cdestroy Iran\u2019s civilisation, capabilities, and self-confidence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Read more U.S. Attacks Iran After Regime Breaks Ceasefire<\/a><\/p>

Leona Salinas contributed to this report.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Vice President JD Vance leads negotiations aimed at ending the war against Iran and delivering on the administration\u2019s promise that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, one major question looms over the whole process. Can we trust Iran?The U.S. negotiating team has signaled that Iran\u2019s team has shown itself to be much more pragmatic than Iranian negotiators in the past. Little attention, however, has been paid to who exactly these more pragmatic Iranians are.Iran\u2019s delegation is not composed solely of career diplomats. The team includes former Revolutionary Guard commanders, officials tied to violent crackdowns on protesters, figures accused of human rights violations, and regime insiders linked to corruption scandals and political repression.Their records offer a revealing look at the team helping shape the Iranian regime\u2019s approach to the West and its response to dissent at home. Here are the three top men representing Tehran in negotiations with the United States.Mohammad Bagher GhalibafSpeaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Photo by Iranian Parliament Speaker Office \/ Handout \/ Anadolu via Getty Images)As speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has emerged as one of the key figures representing Tehran in negotiations with the Trump administration.A veteran of the U.S.-designated terror organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ghalibaf has spent more than four decades in some of the regime\u2019s most powerful positions, including commander of the IRGC Air Force, chief of Iran\u2019s national police, mayor of Tehran, and, since 2020, speaker of parliament.Across that span, Ghalibaf has faced repeated allegations of corruption and human rights abuses while earning a reputation as one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most prominent enforcers of violent suppression of civilian protests.During the July 1999 student protests, he was one of 24 senior IRGC commanders who signed a letter warning then-President Mohammad Khatami that the military would intervene if his government failed to crush the demonstrations.\u00a0In a leaked 2013 audio recording, he allegedly boasted about personally assaulting student protesters, saying photographs showed him riding on the back of a motorcycle \u201cbeating them with wooden sticks,\u201d before adding, \u201cI was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that. I didn\u2019t care I was a high ranking commander.\u201dHe went on to describe his role in later efforts to suppress dissent, including the 2003 student demonstrations, claiming he pressured officials to authorize security forces to enter university campuses and use force against protesters.\u00a0\u201cI went to the National Security Council meeting and raised hell, spoke very harshly. Didn\u2019t observe proper protocol and I told them as head of the Police, I will demolish anyone who would show up tonight on the campus to protest,\u201d he said.\u00a0Discussing the mass protests that followed Iran\u2019s disputed 2009 presidential election, Ghalibaf boasted that Tehran\u2019s municipality played such a significant role in suppressing the unrest that officials ranked it among the government\u2019s top-performing institutions in responding to the protests.\u201cAlthough the Mayoralty is not a security agency, we were ranked third in how well we responded\u2026 and this is amongst intelligence-security organs, not all state organs,\u201d he said.The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died after being detained by Iran\u2019s morality police for allegedly violating the country\u2019s mandatory hijab law, sparked nationwide anti-regime protests in 2022. Ghalibaf dismissed the demonstrations as an effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and called for those he accused of threatening public order to be dealt with harshly.As the regime carried out a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests in late 2025 and early 2026, with some estimates placing the death toll as high as 32,000, Ghalibaf defended the government\u2019s response at a state-organized \u201cIranian Uprising Against American-Zionist Terrorism\u201d rally. Speaking to the crowd, he portrayed the unrest as foreign-backed terrorism, arguing Iran was fighting a \u201cwar against terrorism.\u201dGhalibaf has also faced repeated corruption allegations, including during his tenure as Tehran\u2019s mayor, when his administration was accused of improperly transferring valuable municipal properties to politically connected insiders.\u00a0Years later, as Iran struggled with inflation topping 40%, he was engulfed by the 2022 \u201cSismonigate\u201d scandal after members of his family were photographed returning from Turkey with luxury baby goods and nearly 20 pieces of luggage. The scandal sparked calls for his resignation. It deepened further after reports that members of his family had also purchased two luxury apartments in Istanbul worth roughly $1.6 million.Despite four unsuccessful presidential campaigns, repeated corruption allegations, and more recent attacks from hardline lawmakers over negotiations with the United States, Ghalibaf has remained one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most influential political figures. His critics have accused him of shielding the negotiations from parliamentary scrutiny and crossing Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s red lines, reported Iran International.Abbas AraghchiIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (Photo by Burak Kara\/Getty Images)As Iran\u2019s foreign minister and one of the regime\u2019s longest-serving nuclear negotiators, Abbas Araghchi has become the face of Tehran\u2019s diplomacy with the West.\u00a0Araghchi has spent more than two decades climbing the ranks in the Islamic regime. After earning a Ph.D. from England\u2019s University of Kent, he served as Iran\u2019s ambassador to Finland and Japan, Foreign Ministry spokesman, deputy foreign minister, chief nuclear negotiator, and, in 2024, foreign minister.To Western audiences, Araghchi is often viewed as a seasoned diplomat. But before entering the Foreign Ministry, he spent nine years serving in the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War.The IRGC remains one of the most powerful pillars of the Islamic Republic and has long been accused of supporting terrorism abroad and brutally suppressing dissent at home.Araghchi has consistently defended the regime\u2019s hardline positions toward the United States and its allies. Following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, he accused Washington of committing \u201ca grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT\u201d and warned the attacks would have \u201ceverlasting consequences.\u201dAraghchi has also brushed off Western criticism of the regime\u2019s human rights record. In 2023, amid global demonstrations supporting Iran\u2019s protest movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, Araghchi urged Iranian officials to prevent demonstrations against the Islamic Republic from taking place abroad. He argued the protests were fueling an effort to \u201cdefame and delegitimize\u201d the regime and warned the campaign was \u201cvery dangerous\u201d because it was harming Iran\u2019s relationships with other countries.During the regime\u2019s squashing of the protests in January 2026, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Tehran of using \u201cdisproportionate and brutal violence\u201d against demonstrators. Araghchi dismissed the criticism, arguing Germany had forfeited its credibility on human rights because of its support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.Ali Bagheri KaniAli Bagheri Kani (Photo by Marwan Naamani\/picture alliance via Getty Images)Another key figure in Iran\u2019s delegation is Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council and a longtime regime insider whose career has taken him through Iran\u2019s security establishment, judiciary, and nuclear negotiating team.Bagheri Kani\u2019s rise through the Islamic Republic has been closely intertwined with one of the regime\u2019s most influential political families. His father, Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani, is a prominent cleric and former member of parliament and the Assembly of Experts. His uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, served as acting prime minister, interior minister, and later chaired the Assembly of Experts. His brother is married to a daughter of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Al Jazeera.He served as deputy foreign minister for political affairs and briefly as acting foreign minister after Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was killed in a 2024 helicopter crash.He also held senior positions in Iran\u2019s judiciary, serving as deputy for international affairs and secretary of the regime\u2019s Human Rights Headquarters, which is responsible for defending Iran\u2019s human rights record on the international stage.He also worked under hardline negotiator Saeed Jalili from 2007 to 2013, when the Supreme National Security Council handled the country\u2019s nuclear file. Bagheri Kani managed Jalili\u2019s 2013 presidential campaign, defending his confrontational approach to negotiations while opposing then-candidate Hassan Rouhani\u2019s push for a nuclear agreement with the West. He later defended Iran\u2019s strategy of stalling negotiations, saying Tehran deliberately sought to \u201cbuy time\u201d so work at the Fordow and Arak nuclear facilities could continue.After Rouhani took office and pursued President Barack Obama\u2019s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Bagheri Kani became one of its most outspoken critics. He repeatedly attacked the negotiations in parliament, wrote op-eds condemning the agreement, and argued it was a Western trap that surrendered Iran\u2019s sovereignty. He later described Iran\u2019s negotiations with the United States as \u201ca bitter historical experience.\u201dIn 2021, he became Tehran\u2019s chief nuclear negotiator and led the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the very agreement he had spent years opposing.Bagheri Kani has consistently taken a hard line against the United States. He denounced what he called Washington\u2019s \u201cunlawful and inhumane sanctions,\u201d argued in July 2024 that the U.S. \u201ccannot be part of the solution\u201d in the Middle East but is instead \u201cthe main obstacle,\u201d and, in June, he accused Washington of seeking to \u201cdestroy Iran\u2019s civilisation, capabilities, and self-confidence.\u201dLeona Salinas contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance - Blue Route Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance - Blue Route Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Vice President JD Vance leads negotiations aimed at ending the war against Iran and delivering on the administration\u2019s promise that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, one major question looms over the whole process. Can we trust Iran?The U.S. negotiating team has signaled that Iran\u2019s team has shown itself to be much more pragmatic than Iranian negotiators in the past. Little attention, however, has been paid to who exactly these more pragmatic Iranians are.Iran\u2019s delegation is not composed solely of career diplomats. The team includes former Revolutionary Guard commanders, officials tied to violent crackdowns on protesters, figures accused of human rights violations, and regime insiders linked to corruption scandals and political repression.Their records offer a revealing look at the team helping shape the Iranian regime\u2019s approach to the West and its response to dissent at home. Here are the three top men representing Tehran in negotiations with the United States.Mohammad Bagher GhalibafSpeaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Photo by Iranian Parliament Speaker Office \/ Handout \/ Anadolu via Getty Images)As speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has emerged as one of the key figures representing Tehran in negotiations with the Trump administration.A veteran of the U.S.-designated terror organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ghalibaf has spent more than four decades in some of the regime\u2019s most powerful positions, including commander of the IRGC Air Force, chief of Iran\u2019s national police, mayor of Tehran, and, since 2020, speaker of parliament.Across that span, Ghalibaf has faced repeated allegations of corruption and human rights abuses while earning a reputation as one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most prominent enforcers of violent suppression of civilian protests.During the July 1999 student protests, he was one of 24 senior IRGC commanders who signed a letter warning then-President Mohammad Khatami that the military would intervene if his government failed to crush the demonstrations.\u00a0In a leaked 2013 audio recording, he allegedly boasted about personally assaulting student protesters, saying photographs showed him riding on the back of a motorcycle \u201cbeating them with wooden sticks,\u201d before adding, \u201cI was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that. I didn\u2019t care I was a high ranking commander.\u201dHe went on to describe his role in later efforts to suppress dissent, including the 2003 student demonstrations, claiming he pressured officials to authorize security forces to enter university campuses and use force against protesters.\u00a0\u201cI went to the National Security Council meeting and raised hell, spoke very harshly. Didn\u2019t observe proper protocol and I told them as head of the Police, I will demolish anyone who would show up tonight on the campus to protest,\u201d he said.\u00a0Discussing the mass protests that followed Iran\u2019s disputed 2009 presidential election, Ghalibaf boasted that Tehran\u2019s municipality played such a significant role in suppressing the unrest that officials ranked it among the government\u2019s top-performing institutions in responding to the protests.\u201cAlthough the Mayoralty is not a security agency, we were ranked third in how well we responded\u2026 and this is amongst intelligence-security organs, not all state organs,\u201d he said.The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died after being detained by Iran\u2019s morality police for allegedly violating the country\u2019s mandatory hijab law, sparked nationwide anti-regime protests in 2022. Ghalibaf dismissed the demonstrations as an effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and called for those he accused of threatening public order to be dealt with harshly.As the regime carried out a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests in late 2025 and early 2026, with some estimates placing the death toll as high as 32,000, Ghalibaf defended the government\u2019s response at a state-organized \u201cIranian Uprising Against American-Zionist Terrorism\u201d rally. Speaking to the crowd, he portrayed the unrest as foreign-backed terrorism, arguing Iran was fighting a \u201cwar against terrorism.\u201dGhalibaf has also faced repeated corruption allegations, including during his tenure as Tehran\u2019s mayor, when his administration was accused of improperly transferring valuable municipal properties to politically connected insiders.\u00a0Years later, as Iran struggled with inflation topping 40%, he was engulfed by the 2022 \u201cSismonigate\u201d scandal after members of his family were photographed returning from Turkey with luxury baby goods and nearly 20 pieces of luggage. The scandal sparked calls for his resignation. It deepened further after reports that members of his family had also purchased two luxury apartments in Istanbul worth roughly $1.6 million.Despite four unsuccessful presidential campaigns, repeated corruption allegations, and more recent attacks from hardline lawmakers over negotiations with the United States, Ghalibaf has remained one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most influential political figures. His critics have accused him of shielding the negotiations from parliamentary scrutiny and crossing Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s red lines, reported Iran International.Abbas AraghchiIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (Photo by Burak Kara\/Getty Images)As Iran\u2019s foreign minister and one of the regime\u2019s longest-serving nuclear negotiators, Abbas Araghchi has become the face of Tehran\u2019s diplomacy with the West.\u00a0Araghchi has spent more than two decades climbing the ranks in the Islamic regime. After earning a Ph.D. from England\u2019s University of Kent, he served as Iran\u2019s ambassador to Finland and Japan, Foreign Ministry spokesman, deputy foreign minister, chief nuclear negotiator, and, in 2024, foreign minister.To Western audiences, Araghchi is often viewed as a seasoned diplomat. But before entering the Foreign Ministry, he spent nine years serving in the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War.The IRGC remains one of the most powerful pillars of the Islamic Republic and has long been accused of supporting terrorism abroad and brutally suppressing dissent at home.Araghchi has consistently defended the regime\u2019s hardline positions toward the United States and its allies. Following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, he accused Washington of committing \u201ca grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT\u201d and warned the attacks would have \u201ceverlasting consequences.\u201dAraghchi has also brushed off Western criticism of the regime\u2019s human rights record. In 2023, amid global demonstrations supporting Iran\u2019s protest movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, Araghchi urged Iranian officials to prevent demonstrations against the Islamic Republic from taking place abroad. He argued the protests were fueling an effort to \u201cdefame and delegitimize\u201d the regime and warned the campaign was \u201cvery dangerous\u201d because it was harming Iran\u2019s relationships with other countries.During the regime\u2019s squashing of the protests in January 2026, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Tehran of using \u201cdisproportionate and brutal violence\u201d against demonstrators. Araghchi dismissed the criticism, arguing Germany had forfeited its credibility on human rights because of its support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.Ali Bagheri KaniAli Bagheri Kani (Photo by Marwan Naamani\/picture alliance via Getty Images)Another key figure in Iran\u2019s delegation is Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council and a longtime regime insider whose career has taken him through Iran\u2019s security establishment, judiciary, and nuclear negotiating team.Bagheri Kani\u2019s rise through the Islamic Republic has been closely intertwined with one of the regime\u2019s most influential political families. His father, Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani, is a prominent cleric and former member of parliament and the Assembly of Experts. His uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, served as acting prime minister, interior minister, and later chaired the Assembly of Experts. His brother is married to a daughter of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Al Jazeera.He served as deputy foreign minister for political affairs and briefly as acting foreign minister after Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was killed in a 2024 helicopter crash.He also held senior positions in Iran\u2019s judiciary, serving as deputy for international affairs and secretary of the regime\u2019s Human Rights Headquarters, which is responsible for defending Iran\u2019s human rights record on the international stage.He also worked under hardline negotiator Saeed Jalili from 2007 to 2013, when the Supreme National Security Council handled the country\u2019s nuclear file. Bagheri Kani managed Jalili\u2019s 2013 presidential campaign, defending his confrontational approach to negotiations while opposing then-candidate Hassan Rouhani\u2019s push for a nuclear agreement with the West. He later defended Iran\u2019s strategy of stalling negotiations, saying Tehran deliberately sought to \u201cbuy time\u201d so work at the Fordow and Arak nuclear facilities could continue.After Rouhani took office and pursued President Barack Obama\u2019s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Bagheri Kani became one of its most outspoken critics. He repeatedly attacked the negotiations in parliament, wrote op-eds condemning the agreement, and argued it was a Western trap that surrendered Iran\u2019s sovereignty. He later described Iran\u2019s negotiations with the United States as \u201ca bitter historical experience.\u201dIn 2021, he became Tehran\u2019s chief nuclear negotiator and led the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the very agreement he had spent years opposing.Bagheri Kani has consistently taken a hard line against the United States. He denounced what he called Washington\u2019s \u201cunlawful and inhumane sanctions,\u201d argued in July 2024 that the U.S. \u201ccannot be part of the solution\u201d in the Middle East but is instead \u201cthe main obstacle,\u201d and, in June, he accused Washington of seeking to \u201cdestroy Iran\u2019s civilisation, capabilities, and self-confidence.\u201dLeona Salinas contributed to this report.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blue Route Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-27T09:05:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19da116f8d79cf8987781569801c6b7c\"},\"headline\":\"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-27T09:05:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698\"},\"wordCount\":1554,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bb86962aa0e11cbe06a99c58b382bd2f.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=698\",\"name\":\"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance - 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Blue Route Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance - Blue Route Journal","og_description":"As Vice President JD Vance leads negotiations aimed at ending the war against Iran and delivering on the administration\u2019s promise that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, one major question looms over the whole process. Can we trust Iran?The U.S. negotiating team has signaled that Iran\u2019s team has shown itself to be much more pragmatic than Iranian negotiators in the past. Little attention, however, has been paid to who exactly these more pragmatic Iranians are.Iran\u2019s delegation is not composed solely of career diplomats. The team includes former Revolutionary Guard commanders, officials tied to violent crackdowns on protesters, figures accused of human rights violations, and regime insiders linked to corruption scandals and political repression.Their records offer a revealing look at the team helping shape the Iranian regime\u2019s approach to the West and its response to dissent at home. Here are the three top men representing Tehran in negotiations with the United States.Mohammad Bagher GhalibafSpeaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Photo by Iranian Parliament Speaker Office \/ Handout \/ Anadolu via Getty Images)As speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has emerged as one of the key figures representing Tehran in negotiations with the Trump administration.A veteran of the U.S.-designated terror organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ghalibaf has spent more than four decades in some of the regime\u2019s most powerful positions, including commander of the IRGC Air Force, chief of Iran\u2019s national police, mayor of Tehran, and, since 2020, speaker of parliament.Across that span, Ghalibaf has faced repeated allegations of corruption and human rights abuses while earning a reputation as one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most prominent enforcers of violent suppression of civilian protests.During the July 1999 student protests, he was one of 24 senior IRGC commanders who signed a letter warning then-President Mohammad Khatami that the military would intervene if his government failed to crush the demonstrations.\u00a0In a leaked 2013 audio recording, he allegedly boasted about personally assaulting student protesters, saying photographs showed him riding on the back of a motorcycle \u201cbeating them with wooden sticks,\u201d before adding, \u201cI was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that. I didn\u2019t care I was a high ranking commander.\u201dHe went on to describe his role in later efforts to suppress dissent, including the 2003 student demonstrations, claiming he pressured officials to authorize security forces to enter university campuses and use force against protesters.\u00a0\u201cI went to the National Security Council meeting and raised hell, spoke very harshly. Didn\u2019t observe proper protocol and I told them as head of the Police, I will demolish anyone who would show up tonight on the campus to protest,\u201d he said.\u00a0Discussing the mass protests that followed Iran\u2019s disputed 2009 presidential election, Ghalibaf boasted that Tehran\u2019s municipality played such a significant role in suppressing the unrest that officials ranked it among the government\u2019s top-performing institutions in responding to the protests.\u201cAlthough the Mayoralty is not a security agency, we were ranked third in how well we responded\u2026 and this is amongst intelligence-security organs, not all state organs,\u201d he said.The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died after being detained by Iran\u2019s morality police for allegedly violating the country\u2019s mandatory hijab law, sparked nationwide anti-regime protests in 2022. Ghalibaf dismissed the demonstrations as an effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and called for those he accused of threatening public order to be dealt with harshly.As the regime carried out a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests in late 2025 and early 2026, with some estimates placing the death toll as high as 32,000, Ghalibaf defended the government\u2019s response at a state-organized \u201cIranian Uprising Against American-Zionist Terrorism\u201d rally. Speaking to the crowd, he portrayed the unrest as foreign-backed terrorism, arguing Iran was fighting a \u201cwar against terrorism.\u201dGhalibaf has also faced repeated corruption allegations, including during his tenure as Tehran\u2019s mayor, when his administration was accused of improperly transferring valuable municipal properties to politically connected insiders.\u00a0Years later, as Iran struggled with inflation topping 40%, he was engulfed by the 2022 \u201cSismonigate\u201d scandal after members of his family were photographed returning from Turkey with luxury baby goods and nearly 20 pieces of luggage. The scandal sparked calls for his resignation. It deepened further after reports that members of his family had also purchased two luxury apartments in Istanbul worth roughly $1.6 million.Despite four unsuccessful presidential campaigns, repeated corruption allegations, and more recent attacks from hardline lawmakers over negotiations with the United States, Ghalibaf has remained one of the Islamic Republic\u2019s most influential political figures. His critics have accused him of shielding the negotiations from parliamentary scrutiny and crossing Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s red lines, reported Iran International.Abbas AraghchiIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (Photo by Burak Kara\/Getty Images)As Iran\u2019s foreign minister and one of the regime\u2019s longest-serving nuclear negotiators, Abbas Araghchi has become the face of Tehran\u2019s diplomacy with the West.\u00a0Araghchi has spent more than two decades climbing the ranks in the Islamic regime. After earning a Ph.D. from England\u2019s University of Kent, he served as Iran\u2019s ambassador to Finland and Japan, Foreign Ministry spokesman, deputy foreign minister, chief nuclear negotiator, and, in 2024, foreign minister.To Western audiences, Araghchi is often viewed as a seasoned diplomat. But before entering the Foreign Ministry, he spent nine years serving in the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War.The IRGC remains one of the most powerful pillars of the Islamic Republic and has long been accused of supporting terrorism abroad and brutally suppressing dissent at home.Araghchi has consistently defended the regime\u2019s hardline positions toward the United States and its allies. Following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, he accused Washington of committing \u201ca grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT\u201d and warned the attacks would have \u201ceverlasting consequences.\u201dAraghchi has also brushed off Western criticism of the regime\u2019s human rights record. In 2023, amid global demonstrations supporting Iran\u2019s protest movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, Araghchi urged Iranian officials to prevent demonstrations against the Islamic Republic from taking place abroad. He argued the protests were fueling an effort to \u201cdefame and delegitimize\u201d the regime and warned the campaign was \u201cvery dangerous\u201d because it was harming Iran\u2019s relationships with other countries.During the regime\u2019s squashing of the protests in January 2026, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Tehran of using \u201cdisproportionate and brutal violence\u201d against demonstrators. Araghchi dismissed the criticism, arguing Germany had forfeited its credibility on human rights because of its support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.Ali Bagheri KaniAli Bagheri Kani (Photo by Marwan Naamani\/picture alliance via Getty Images)Another key figure in Iran\u2019s delegation is Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council and a longtime regime insider whose career has taken him through Iran\u2019s security establishment, judiciary, and nuclear negotiating team.Bagheri Kani\u2019s rise through the Islamic Republic has been closely intertwined with one of the regime\u2019s most influential political families. His father, Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani, is a prominent cleric and former member of parliament and the Assembly of Experts. His uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, served as acting prime minister, interior minister, and later chaired the Assembly of Experts. His brother is married to a daughter of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Al Jazeera.He served as deputy foreign minister for political affairs and briefly as acting foreign minister after Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was killed in a 2024 helicopter crash.He also held senior positions in Iran\u2019s judiciary, serving as deputy for international affairs and secretary of the regime\u2019s Human Rights Headquarters, which is responsible for defending Iran\u2019s human rights record on the international stage.He also worked under hardline negotiator Saeed Jalili from 2007 to 2013, when the Supreme National Security Council handled the country\u2019s nuclear file. Bagheri Kani managed Jalili\u2019s 2013 presidential campaign, defending his confrontational approach to negotiations while opposing then-candidate Hassan Rouhani\u2019s push for a nuclear agreement with the West. He later defended Iran\u2019s strategy of stalling negotiations, saying Tehran deliberately sought to \u201cbuy time\u201d so work at the Fordow and Arak nuclear facilities could continue.After Rouhani took office and pursued President Barack Obama\u2019s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Bagheri Kani became one of its most outspoken critics. He repeatedly attacked the negotiations in parliament, wrote op-eds condemning the agreement, and argued it was a Western trap that surrendered Iran\u2019s sovereignty. He later described Iran\u2019s negotiations with the United States as \u201ca bitter historical experience.\u201dIn 2021, he became Tehran\u2019s chief nuclear negotiator and led the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the very agreement he had spent years opposing.Bagheri Kani has consistently taken a hard line against the United States. He denounced what he called Washington\u2019s \u201cunlawful and inhumane sanctions,\u201d argued in July 2024 that the U.S. \u201ccannot be part of the solution\u201d in the Middle East but is instead \u201cthe main obstacle,\u201d and, in June, he accused Washington of seeking to \u201cdestroy Iran\u2019s civilisation, capabilities, and self-confidence.\u201dLeona Salinas contributed to this report.","og_url":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698","og_site_name":"Blue Route Journal","article_published_time":"2026-06-27T09:05:59+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/#\/schema\/person\/19da116f8d79cf8987781569801c6b7c"},"headline":"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance","datePublished":"2026-06-27T09:05:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698"},"wordCount":1554,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bb86962aa0e11cbe06a99c58b382bd2f.avif","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698","url":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=698","name":"Meet The Iranians Leading Negotiations With JD Vance - 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