EU foreign policy chief Lady Ashton comes of age in Iran talks Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Geneva talks For three years, Catherine Ashton has navigated the quarters of Brussels with a virtual target on her back - the subject of withering and constant criticism over her performance as the EU's foreign policy chief. So it was all the more remarkable when her team returned from negotiations in Geneva to a standing ovation on Monday from EU ambassadors for their part in clinching a historic deal to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions. For Lady Ashton, once regarded as a dilettante in over her head in the deep waters of international diplomacy, her role in the Iran negotiations has enhanced her stature. It is not merely a one-off success, but the high-point in a six month stretch that began with the unexpected deal she brokered between Kosovo and Serbia in April, paving the way for two former foes to normalise relations. "I tip my hat to her," said senior French diplomat involved in the Iran talks. She truly played a decisive role. The Quai d'Orsay, the Paris foreign ministry, has long been among Lady Ashton's most ardent critics. But now the diplomat said she was "one of the keys to [their] success," arguing her negotiations with the Iranian side had "worked remarkably well," particularly in the decisive final hours. That outcome hardly seemed assured. Three weeks ago, sitting in the same Geneva hotel where she had spent countless hours negotiating the minutiae of Iran's nuclear programme, Lady Ashton feared she had hit a wall. Mohammad Javad Zarif, the US-educated Iranian diplomat who had become her chief interlocutor since his appointment as the Islamic Republic's foreign minister in August, was unconvinced the Obama administration could deliver what it was promising as world powers struggled to reach a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. In Washington, Congress was agitating for new sanctions against Iran, but the EU's foreign policy chief and her team were assuring him the White House would be able to unilaterally lift sanctions that had frozen billions in Iranian assets. Mr Zarif remained dubious. So Lady Ashton reached for the last arrow in her quiver: she called John Kerry, US secretary of state, and asked him to fly to Geneva to reassure Mr Zarif face to face. Although Lady Ashton would sit in on the session - as she did all "bilaterals" with Mr Zarif during the weeks of negotiations - it would break a taboo: never before had such senior Iranian and American leaders discussed the nuclear programme in such a direct and public setting. The decision carried another risk. By calling in Mr Kerry, expectations of an imminent deal rose. Foreign ministers from the other five world powers engaged in the talks - China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany - decided they had to be in Geneva too. When the talks broke up without a deal, the criticism was swift and harsh. Three weeks later, the decision appears prophetic. The earlier meeting had built confidence between Mr Zarif and Mr Kerry - and it had one other palliative effect: Mr Zarif, who had for months insisted he would negotiate only with other foreign ministers, was tired of the cacophony. Now he wanted to deal only with Lady Ashton. "That the others agreed to this was significant," said a senior western diplomat. For China and Russia to be outside while she was in the room negotiating the details of the text was quite remarkable. For Lady Ashton, who toiled in the relative obscurity of advocacy organisations and mid-level domestic political roles, it was a rough start when she was vaulted on to the world stage in 2009 as the EU's first foreign policy chief to wield the expanded powers given by the Lisbon treaty. She was chosen for the job not because of any foreign policy credentials, but because of a classic Brussels backroom political deal. With the EU's top two jobs going to centre-right politicians, Gordon Brown, the then UK prime minister - stymied in his effort to get his predecessor Tony Blair chosen as the European Council's new president - was asked to come up with a list of potential centre-left candidates for the new High Representative post. When bigger names such as former foreign secretary David Miliband demurred and Brussels pushed for gender balance, Lady Ashton became the default candidate. Almost immediately, the choice was criticised. Some EU defenders argued she was put in a position that even experienced foreign policy hands would have found difficult: building from scratch a new EU foreign service; representing Britain in the European Commission; and chairing a group of 27 foreign ministers with frequently divergent views and sizeable egos. EU diplomats said Lady Ashton compounded the difficulties by showing a thin skin towards criticism and relying only on a close-knit group of advisers. She also failed to engage in the kind of public diplomacy needed from a modern jet-setting diplomat, where foreign ministers not only regularly project "soft power" through the media but via Twitter as well. The complaints reached a crescendo two years ago during the Arab uprisings, when Europe's response appeared incoherent and unfocused. "In the absence of a central player that reacts, makes analyses and conclusions quickly - it is the Germans today, the French tomorrow or the English who partially take up this role," Steven Vanackere, then the Belgian foreign minister and a one-time Ashton defender, told the local press. The result is centrifugal, not centripetal. But her low-key, behind-the-scenes work slowly began to pay off. the Kosovo truce "was a major moment and it was fully facilitated by her," said one EU official. It woke people up the possibilities of the High Representative. Her repeated trips to Egypt - including an ultimately unsuccessful effort to broker a peace between military hardliners and President Mohamed Morsi - made her one of the few foreign leaders both sides in Egypt now trust. She was the first foreign leader to meet Mr Morsi in detention in July. If the immediate aftermath of the Iran deal is any indication, Lady Ashton is unlikely to change her style. Unlike other foreign ministers, she has not touted her success publicly and has been nearly absent in the international debate over whether the deal was adequate to roll back Iran's progress towards an atomic bomb. But supporters say the agreement, like the Kosovo one before it, has proved she can do the job despite its structural limitations. "I don't know what people expected," said one EU advocate. Did they expect the EU to sort out the Arab Spring? Additional reporting by Hugh Carnegy in Paris and Alex Barker in Brussels