The diplomats are obviously aware that they are negotiating a very sensitive issue with a culture that is not their own. As any person, we have the tendency to believe that our culture is dominant. The diplomats can not afford to negotiate within the conference room with that attitude. Moreover, there are many factors that might influence communication between the two which the diplomats should be aware of. For example, Arabs tend to be loud and use excessive hand gestures. One should not take this as an offense but simply as part of another cultures form of expression.
Furthermore, this is a negotiation occurring between a high context (Iran) and a low context (the United States). This means that they have opposite ways of conveying a message. In high context communication, less is explicit; the diplomats should not take offense and beware that if they says everything blatantly they might be offending the Iranian diplomats who would believe that the US diplomats consider them ignorant.
One of the most important factors that is more ubiquitous between the two are the nonverbal communications. Most of these silent gestures are universal and diplomats should watch out for these signs in order for the negotiation to run smoothly. Meaning, they should be aware of the others facial expressions. Since nonverbal are subconscious, what the diplomat is revealing through his/her facial expressions is what they truly feel.
All in all, these dimplomats have to take into consideration that this is a complete different culture. Different in context as well as time (Iranians follow polychromic timing, whilst US monochromic). The last thing that a diplomat should do is consider their culture more dominant as mentioned earlier.
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