Muscat: Iran and the United States will hold more negotiations next week over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, Iranian state television reported Saturday at the end of the first round of talks between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Iranian state TV said US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “briefly spoke in the presence of the Omani foreign minister” at the end of the talks, marking a direct interactions between the two nations locked in decades of tensions.
Aragachi later told Iranian state TV that the next round of talks will take place on April 19.
He described the negotiations so far as constructive, telling state TV there were four rounds of messages exchanged indirectly between Iran and the US during the talks in Muscat, Oman.
American officials did not immediately acknowledge the Iranian reports, which Tehran likely speeded out to its public ahead of a possible Trump post on social media. But declaring that the two sides spoke face-to-face — even if briefly — suggests the negotiations went well.
The talks began at around 3:30 pm local. The two sides spoke for over two hours at a location in the outskirts of Oman, ending the talks around 5:50 pm local time. The convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff returned to Muscat, the capital of Oman, before disappearing into traffic around a neighbourhood that is home to the US Embassy.
The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Talks take place Saturday afternoon in Oman
AP journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leave the Omani Foreign Ministry on Saturday afternoon and then speed off into the outskirts of Muscat. The convoy went into a compound and a few minutes later, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on the social platform X that the “indirect talks” had begun.
“These talks will be held at a location planned by the Omani host, with representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States seated in the halls and sides, conveying their points of view and positions to each other through the Omani Foreign Minister,” Baghaei wrote.
About an hour later, Baghaei appeared on Iranian state television and acknowledged the talks had been going on all that time.
“The objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran is very clear — we have only one goal, and that is to safeguard Iran’s national interests,” he said. “We are giving a genuine and honest opportunity to diplomacy, so that through dialogue, we can move forward on the nuclear issue on one hand, and more importantly for us, the lifting of sanctions.”
Baghaei added: “Look, this is just a beginning. So it is natural that, at this stage, both sides will present their foundational positions through the Omani mediator. Therefore, we do not expect this round of negotiations to be lengthy.”
Araghchi earlier spoke to Iranian journalists.
“If there is sufficient will on both sides, we will decide on a timetable. But it is still too early to talk about that,” Araghchi said, in an audio clip published by IRNA. “What is clear now is that the negotiations are indirect, and in our view only on the nuclear issue, and will be conducted with the necessary will to reach an agreement that is on an equal footing and leads to securing the national interests of the Iranian people.”
Trump and Witkoff both had described the talks as being “direct.”
“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your programme. That is our position today,” Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his trip. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”
He added: “Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability,”
Sanctions relief, enrichment remain top issues
While the US side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67 per cent. Today, Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses and it has some material enriched up to 60 per cent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20 per cent.
One thing it won’t do is give up its programme entirely. That makes the proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution” — unworkable.
Iranians, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.
AP
