The Art of the Deal - Persian Edition

Iran Diplomats Show How To Navigate Trumpworld

• The most striking line in Abbas Araghchi’s online speech - originally prepared for a now-cancelled Carnegie address—wasn’t about centrifuges or sanctions.

• It was a sales pitch, plain and bold: “Tens of billions of dollars in potential contracts are up for grabs.”

• That’s the line that sticks.

• That’s the line that lands.

• While many of America's traditional allies still waste diplomatic capital appealing to Donald Trump’s notions of values, institutions, or multilateralism, Iran - yes, Iran - is leaning into Trump’s core instinct: the deal.

• Big numbers. Big investments. Big American jobs.

• Just like the Saudis did in 2017 when they waved $110 billion in arms purchases and a $600 billion investment promise in front of Trump in January of this year, Tehran is now playing a similar tune: "Let your companies bid to build 19 reactors in Iran."

• This is no idle flirtation.

• Only 65 nuclear reactors are under construction globally.

• Contracts from Iran to build 19 of them could revitalize an otherwise stagnating American nuclear sector.

• It’s a message tailored with surgical precision for Trump - a man driven more by the language of dollar signs and job creation than deterrence theory or IAEA monitoring protocols.

The Trump-Iran Dance: Realism over Idealism