On Professional Diplomacy
By 
I was wandering around Fox News trying to determine if they were picking up on Racist Grandpa’s bizarre claims about the Reflecting Pool, and came across a decent enough article on the differences between the US and Iranian approaches to this negotiation:
Iranian state media also confirmed that Tehran had sent a whole-regime apparatus, led by chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Their team includes top security, legal and financial figures, including Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, leading the economic committee; Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council; Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister handling legal affairs; as well as senior state oil and energy officials…
“Iran has not only sent diplomats; it has sent the foreign ministry, the security state, the central bank, legal affairs and oil,” he explained. “This is a whole-regime delegation built around implementation, money, leverage and red lines.”
Araghchi, Mohammed said, is the diplomatic face, while Bagheri Kani brings the Supreme National Security Council into the room, meaning the security establishment is overseeing the process and “protecting the regime’s red lines.”
The inclusion of Iran’s top financial and energy officials also sends the clearest signal of Tehran’s primary objective: immediate cash flow, “energy leverage” and control of maritime operations, the expert said.
“Hemmati’s presence on Sunday was one of the clearest signals. You do not send the central bank governor to a symbolic meeting. You send him when the question is money: frozen assets, sanctions relief, banking channels, usable currency and how quickly Iran can turn promises on paper into cash it can actually spend,” Mohammed said.
“The oil official is another major signal. If oil is in the room, Hormuz is in the room. For an American policymaker, that means maritime security and energy leverage.”
Gharibabadi’s presence, Mohammed said, pointed directly to a legal battlefield over verification and language, perhaps designed to ensure Iran can bypass future enforcement.
The U.S. delegation, which includes Vice President JD Vance, is anchored by U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff and former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner.
This is to say that Iran brought experts and professionals. We sent Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and Mr. Fake Hillbilly. And of course President Racist Grandpa decided to fuck things up even before we got started:
President Trump warned the U.S. could strike Iran over its support for Hezbollah, as fighting between the militant group and Israel threatened to upend the preliminary peace deal he signed last week and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Trump’s comments on social media came as Vice President JD Vance was in Switzerland for talks with Iran that had been diverted to focusing on last week’s flare-up in Lebanon instead of the discussion on Iran’s nuclear program that the administration had wanted.
The president’s threats prompted the Iranian delegation to leave the negotiation venue and it is unclear when the talks will resume, Iranian media reported.