Arya News - Iran could “easily trick” Steve Witkoff just like Vladimir Putin did, according to a founding member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran could “easily trick” Steve Witkoff just like Vladimir Putin did, according to a founding member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Mohsen Sazegara said the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic team would use the inexperience of former real-estate developer Mr Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, to drag out negotiations to halt its nuclear programme – much like Russia is doing in talks to end the war in Ukraine .
The talks between Tehran and Washington are scheduled for 10am on Friday in Oman, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, has confirmed. The US and Iran were in the middle of talks in June when Israel struck the country .
Mr Sazegara told The Telegraph: “If Iran wants to sit around a table, especially if Witkoff is at the other end of the table, it sounds like they can easily trick him. The Russians did.”
Steve Witkoff, a former property developer, will find it hard to achieve what the US wants in talks with Iran, says Mohsen Sazegara - AFP
He predicted that Iranian negotiators would replicate the 2015 nuclear deal , which nominally addressed US demands while granting enough flexibility for the Islamic Republic to continue its nuclear programme in secret.
He said: “They would create very complicated formulas like the [2015 deal] and would include all of America’s demands in any potential deal. Trump just wants to say he did something that [ Barack] Obama could not.”
More than 20 years of on-and-off nuclear negotiations have yielded limited results so far.
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which limited Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, fell apart after Mr Trump withdrew in 2018 and reimposed financial penalties.
Subsequent attempts to revive it under the Biden administration stalled, leaving Iran under crippling economic pressure. That deal officially collapsed last year and UN sanctions were reimposed.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, has said the US and Iran will hold talks in Oman on Friday - Getty
For ordinary Iranians, sanctions relief has become a matter of survival rather than politics. The Iranian rial, the country’s currency, has lost significant value, driving inflation and impoverishing the nation of more than 90 million people.
Basic necessities have become unaffordable for many, with even flu vaccines in short supply due to sanctions affecting pharmaceutical imports. These economic hardships exploded into deadly protests in January , when anger over soaring prices triggered demonstrations that Iranian authorities suppressed.
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a reformist politician, said: “It’s been more than 20 years that we’ve been negotiating over the nuclear issue. People are tired of this negotiation process and the word negotiations has become boring for people.” He urged Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president , to prioritise ending sanctions, saying economic desperation drove the January unrest.
Foreign ministers gather for a photograph during the 2015 negotiations to limit Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons - Getty
Meanwhile, Mr Sazegara suggested supreme leader Ali Khamenei would use the same approach used during previous talks – maintaining distance while privately approving every detail, then complaining about the result. Iranian negotiators would tell Mr Witkoff to ignore hardline rhetoric, dismissing it as “for domestic purposes”.
Mr Sazegara said: “They would play with it. Iranians are masters of giving complicated plans, like ‘article 25 connects to article 43’, things which Witkoff would have no idea about because the US expert teams are not supporting him. But if he gets support from all American institutions where there are Iran experts, he can’t be tricked easily.”
Despite the scepticism, Iranian officials insist they remain committed to diplomacy – on their terms. Tehran has made clear it will discuss only nuclear issues and will walk away if Washington raises demands about missiles or regional activities.
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