Muscat (Oman): Envoys from Iran and the United States began negotiations Saturday in Oman over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
No overall agreement is immediately likely, but the stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for these 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.
Flight-tracking data analysed by The Associated Press showed a private jet from Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, Russia, arrived in Oman on Saturday morning. US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff had just met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday there.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry released footage of Tehran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that Araghchi provided Iran’s “stance and key points for the talks to be conveyed to the US side.”
IRNA’s report suggested the meeting would be held later Saturday.
Associated Press journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leaving the Omani Foreign Ministry 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.
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 have 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 weaponisation of your nuclear capability,”
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%. 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%, 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%.
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.
