On Monday, April 21, 2025, a session titled “Assessment of the State and Prospects of Iran-U.S. Negotiations” was held at the Iran-Eurica Institute, featuring a keynote address by Dr. Mostafa Zahrani, former head of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS). The event was attended by the institute’s Directir General, Dr. Effatian, along with a group of the institute’s foreign policy experts and IR researchers.
Regarding the personality and foreign policy of Donald Trump, Dr. Zahrani believes that Trump, in theory, draws on Henry Kissinger’s doctrines in two specific ways:
- He does not reveal his hand to anyone until the very last moment.
- His foreign policy operates on the principle of balance of power, especially visible in his approach to Vladimir Putin.
Dr. Zahrani further noted that currently, there is no defined decision-making process in the U.S. government. Previously, expert-level work was conducted within the State Department and then passed on to the National Security Council for final decisions. Now, due to the lack of a technical decision-making process, individuals—rather than institutions—have become the main drivers of US foreign policy. This shift underscores the significance of individuals like Trump and Witkoff.
On the topic of the JCPOA and U.S.-Iran negotiations, Dr. Zahrani argued that Trump had not read the JCPOA, even at the time he decided to withdraw from it—and still has not. Trump’s style, he explained, does not engage with details. Instead, his decision-making is macro-level and transactional in nature: either a deal is made or it isn’t.
