‘In Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez—who concurrently oversaw the Ministries of Petroleum, Finance, and the Economy while serving as Vice President—maintained deep foreign connections, including a private backchannel to the Trump administration even before Nicolás Maduro’s capture. Her willingness to meet with CIA Director John Ratcliffe for a two-hour summit in Caracas underscored her authority to pivot the entire state apparatus toward a new energy partnership with the West.

The post-Khamenei landscape in Iran lacks any such singular, empowered interlocutor. The Islamic Republic’s parallel power structure, coupled with a 47-year ideology of resistance, has created a fatal disconnect: those who want to do a deal with America cannot deliver, while those who may be able to deliver do not want it. No one currently in Tehran has the will or the weight to break from the inherited stance of resistance and broker a deal à la Delcy Rodríguez.…’ (Karim Sadjadpour via The Atlantic)