Muscat, Oman – Iran and the United States will celebrate more negotiations next week about the nuclear program that progresses rapidly from Tehran, Iranian state television reported on Saturday at the end of the first round of conversations between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Iranian state television said that the envuso of the Middle East of the United States Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, “spoke briefly in the presence of Omaní Foreign Minister” at the end of the conversations, marking a direct interaction between the two nations locked in decades of tensions.
American officials did not immediately recognize Iranian reports, which Tehran probably accelerated to their audience before a possible Trump publication on social networks. But declare that the two parties spoke face to face, even if briefly, suggests that the negotiations went well.
The conversations began around 3:30 pm. The two parts spoke for more than two hours in one place on the outskirts of Oman, finishing the conversations around 5:50 pm local time. The convoy that is believed to take Witkoff returned to Muscat, the capital of Oman, before disappearing in traffic around a neighborhood that houses the United States embassy.
Negotiation bets could not be higher for the two nations that are approaching in half a century of enmity. Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash air attacks aimed at Iran’s nuclear program if an agreement is not reached. Iranian officials warn more and more that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their enriched uranium arsenal to close levels of degree of weapons.
The conversations took place on Saturday afternoon in Oman
AP journalists saw a convoy that is believed to be taking Witkoff to leave Omar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday afternoon and then accelerate on the outskirts of Muscat. The convoy entered a complex and a few minutes later, the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of Iran, Esmail Baghaei, wrote on the social platform X that the “indirect conversations” had begun.
“These conversations will be held in a place planned by the Omeaní host, with representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States sitting in the halls and sides, transmitting their views and positions with each other through the Omaní Foreign Minister,” Baghaei wrote.
Approximately an hour later, Baghaei appeared on Iranian state television and acknowledged that the conversations had been happening all that time.
“The objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran is very clear: we only have one objective, and it is safeguarding the national interests of Iran,” he said. “We are giving a genuine and honest opportunity to diplomacy, so that through dialogue, we can advance in the nuclear issue, and most importantly for us, the lifting of sanctions.”
Baghaei added: “Look, this is just a beginning. Therefore, it is natural that, at this stage, both parties present their fundamental positions through the Omani mediator. Therefore, we do not expect this round of negotiations to be long.”
Araghchi previously spoke with Iranian journalists.
“If there is enough will on both sides, we will decide on a schedule. But it is still too early to talk about it,” said Araghchi, in an audio clip published by Irna. “What is clear now is that the negotiations are indirect and, in our opinion, only on the nuclear issue, and will be carried out with the necessary will to reach an agreement that is on equal terms and leads to ensure the national interests of the Iranian people.”
Trump and Witkoff had described conversations as “direct.”
“I think our position begins with the dismantling of your program. That is our position today,” Witkoff told Wall Street Journal before his trip. “That does not mean, by the way, that in the margin we will not find other ways to find commitment between the two countries.”
He added: “Where our red line will be, there cannot be a weapon of its nuclear capacity,”
The relief and enrichment of sanctions remain the main problems
While the US side can offer relief relief for Iran’s beaten economy, it is not clear how much they will be willing to admit. According to the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran could only maintain a small enriched uranium reserve at 3.67%. Today, the Tehran Reserve could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it decides and has some enriched material up to 60%, at a short and technical pace of the levels of weapons. Judging by negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018, Iran will probably request to continue enriching uranium up to at least 20%.
One thing that will not do is give up your program completely. That makes the proposal of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a so-called Libyan solution: “You enter, you explode the facilities, dismantle all teams, under US supervision, US execution” -No works.
The Iranians, including Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, have sustained what finally happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own weapon by the rebels in the lifting of the Arab spring of 2011 of 2011, as a warning about what can happen when he trusts in the United States.
