Giandomenico Picco, former UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, visited London. As a consultant, Picco works very closely with our Middle East Programme Director, Gabrielle Rifkind, on ORG's ‘Iran Track’, our ‘Avoiding Military Confrontation with Iran’ project.

Picco’s visit provided the opportunity for a number of high-level meetings to discuss some of the quiet off-the-record work ORG is doing on its Iran Track. A number of meetings were arranged whilst he was here, which included senior government officials and senior journalists.

Giandomenico Picco negotiated the end of the Iran-Iraq War in his role as UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs. As a result of this, he has sustained long-term high-level contacts within Iran, and therefore, his particular expertise is both, understanding the mindset of the regime and possible strategic openings.

Just before the meeting, Gabrielle Rifkind visited the Turkish government in Ankara to discuss our on-going work on the Iran Track.

Picco has also written an Op-ed for ORG on 'A Possible Framework for Afghanistan Negotiations'.