US President-elect Donald Trump is considering naming Richard Grenell, his former intelligence chief, as special envoy for Iran, according to two people familiar with the transition plans.
“He’s definitely in the running,” said a person familiar with the transition deliberations, who asked not to be identified.
Trump has yet to make any final decision on personnel or strategy regarding Iran, including whether he will impose new sanctions on the country, pursue diplomacy or both to stop its nuclear program.
Neither Trump’s team nor Grenell responded to requests for comment. Until now, Trump’s plans in this regard had not been reported.
But his consideration as a key ally for that position sends a signal to the region that the new US president may be open to talks with a country he has previously threatened and whose elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have attempted to assassinate him. according to the US Government.
Iran has denied this claim.
Grenell is expected to talk to countries inside and outside the region about the Iranian issue, as well as taking Tehran’s temperature on possible negotiations, one of the people said.
Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian, considered a relative moderate, said after Trump’s election that Tehran must “deal with the United States” and “manage” relations with its archenemy.
Iran has suffered a series of strategic setbacks, including Israel’s assault on Tehran’s allied militias, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the overthrow of Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
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It’s not the first job Trump has considered for Grenell.
But tensions remain high more than a year after Hamas attacked southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Meanwhile, other Iranian allies have attacked American, Israeli and other Western targets and Tehran has accelerated its nuclear program while limiting the ability of the U.N. nuclear watchdog to oversee it.
It’s not the first job Trump has considered for Grenell, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany, special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations and as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s term from 2017 to 2021. .
After campaigning for Trump in the run-up to the November 5 elections, he was one of the main candidates for Secretary of State and special envoy for the war in Ukraine.
Those positions went to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, respectively. Trump will take office next month.
During his first term, in 2020, Trump ordered a US airstrike that killed Iran’s top military commander, Qasem Soleimani.
Trump in 2018 also reneged on a nuclear deal reached by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and reimposed US economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed.
The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran is now “dramatically” accelerating uranium enrichment to 60% purity, close to the 90% considered weapons-grade, the head of Iran’s nuclear watchdog told Reuters last week. the UN. Iran claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
With information from Reuters.
