Exclusive-The man who negotiated for Iran now negotiates for his life

As the regime crumbles, Tehran's foreign minister is said to be quietly reaching out to Trump's inner circle, hoping to survive the fall.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran's Foreign Minister and the Islamic Republic's chief negotiator in recent weeks during talks held in Oman and Geneva, is no longer focused solely on saving the regime. According to sources cited by Mena Today, he is now focused on saving himself.

The seasoned diplomat, son of a wealthy carpet merchant who rose through the ranks of the Islamic Republic's foreign policy establishment, has reportedly made discreet contact with the entourage of Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's Special Envoy, in what appears to be a calculated bid to secure his survival as the walls close in around the mullahcracy.

A Man Who Reads the Writing on the Wall

Araqchi knows he is a marked man. Both Israeli and American intelligence services regard him as a high-value target, and he is acutely aware that the era of the Islamic Republic may be drawing to a close. The killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday has only accelerated what many insiders now see as an inevitable collapse.

Sources suggest Araqchi is not merely seeking physical safety. He is reportedly angling for a role in whatever political transition follows, a remarkable gambit for a man who has spent his career in service of a theocratic regime built on anti-American foundations.

Whether Washington will entertain such an overture remains deeply uncertain. Araqchi's proximity to Khamenei and his long-standing ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps make him a deeply compromised figure in the eyes of many in the Trump administration.

His negotiating role in Oman and Geneva may have given him a degree of visibility with American interlocutors, but visibility cuts both ways.

For every official who sees him as a potential asset in a post-regime transition, there are others who view him as too tainted by association to be trusted.

For now, Araqchi is playing the most dangerous game of his career, betting that the right conversations, in the right ears, might be enough to keep him alive when the regime he served finally falls.

Nothing, as yet, is certain for a man so deeply embedded in the apparatus of a collapsing theocracy.