US special envoy Steve Witkoff has spearheaded talks on Gaza and Ukraine, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is Iran’s key face abroad.
On Friday, they are set to meet in Muscat following a deadly crackdown on a mass protest movement against the Islamic Republic, an event that saw the United States threaten military action before agreeing to talks.
Here are short profiles of the two lead negotiators:
Witkoff: from real estate to the world stage
With no prior experience in foreign policy, Witkoff landed one of the world’s highest-profile roles as US President Donald Trump’s special envoy and has since led talks on Gaza and Ukraine.
The real estate magnate first stepped into the spotlight when his close friend Trump credited him with brokering what became a short-lived truce in the Israel–Hamas war.
He also participated in previous high-level talks with Iran over its nuclear programme last year — discussions abruptly ended by Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic Republic, which the US briefly joined.
Witkoff and Araghchi met during those discussions, also held in Oman.
A 68-year-old billionaire and regular golfing partner of Trump, Witkoff later became the first US official to visit Gaza since the war began with Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.
In October 2025, when Trump claimed credit for brokering the deal that ended the Gaza war, it was Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law and emissary Jared Kushner who negotiated the US position and secured the agreement.
Witkoff has also led negotiations on Ukraine and, ahead of discussions with Iran, was in Abu Dhabi for the latest round of talks on the Ukraine war.
With Trump reversing his predecessor Joe Biden’s policy on Russia, Witkoff has faced criticism from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he has met multiple times in Moscow.
Trump has made ending wars that Biden could not a foreign policy priority, raising the stakes for Witkoff.
Born on 15 March 1957 in the Bronx, New York, Witkoff made his fortune in real estate, first as a corporate lawyer and then at the helm of major property firms.
In 1997, he founded the Witkoff Group, which describes itself as “one part developer, one part investor (and) one part landscape-changer”. His wife and a son also work there.
Araghchi: Iran’s career diplomat
A career diplomat and key architect of the now-defunct 2015 nuclear accord, Araghchi will be pushing the United States to lift sanctions on Iran.
The 63-year-old, who comes from a family of carpet traders, is fluent in English and has held multiple roles in Iran’s foreign ministry.
With his neat beard and salt-and-pepper hair, Araghchi is known for his calm demeanour and typically wears a suit with a tie-less white mandarin-collared shirt, a standard look among Iranian diplomats.
While avoiding the clerical tone common among Iran’s upper echelons, Araghchi played a prominent role last month representing the leadership during a deadly crackdown on mass protests.
Although security forces crushed the movement, Araghchi justified the action in interviews and op-eds, including one in the Wall Street Journal.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the foreign ministry’s Faculty of International Relations, a master’s in political science from the Islamic Azad University, and a doctorate in political thought from the University of Kent in England.
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Araghchi joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and served on the front lines during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s before moving to the foreign ministry as an international affairs expert.
He was appointed foreign minister after President Masoud Pezeshkian took office in July 2024, partly to help repair ties with the West, which he knew well after negotiating the landmark 2015 deal that limited Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
However, Iran’s relations with European countries have deteriorated under his watch after he criticised them for failing to condemn Israel’s war against the Islamic Republic in June.
Relations worsened further when France, the UK and Germany moved at the end of September to reinstate international sanctions on Iran over what they described as non-compliance with the nuclear deal.
The accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had already been undermined after the United States, during Trump’s first term, unilaterally withdrew and reimposed sweeping economic sanctions.
