Tehran appoints new UN envoy amid tensions with US

Iran has appointed career diplomat and former nuclear negotiator Majid Takht Ravanchi as its envoy to the United Nations, Reuters said, citing state media. Tehran is trying to salvage a nuclear deal with world powers despite Washington’s unilateral withdrawal. Takht Ravanchi, 61, is currently the Iranian deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs. He was one of the negotiators who helped Tehran reach a nuclear agreement in 2015 with the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. On Monday, Washington designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization.