President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, but Iran’s foreign minister said the discussions in Oman would be indirect.
In a further sign of the difficult path to any deal between the two geopolitical foes, Trump issued a stark warning that if the talks were unsuccessful, “Iran is going to be in great danger.”
Iran had pushed back against Trump’s demands in recent weeks that it directly negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed, and it appeared to be sticking to that position on Monday.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable,” Trump said. He added that Saturday’s talks with Iran would be at a very high level, without elaborating. He declined to say where the talks would take place but held out the possibility that a deal could be reached.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on X that indirect high-level talks would be held in Oman, adding, “It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court.”
On Tuesday, Iran’s state media said the talks would be led by Araqchi and U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff, with the intermediation of Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi.
The U.S. and Iran held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden’s term but they made little if any progress. The last known direct negotiations between the two governments were under then-President Barack Obama, who spearheaded the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned.
Warnings by Trump of military action against Iran had jangled already tense nerves across the Middle East after open warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, military strikes on Yemen, a change of leadership in Syria and Israeli-Iranian exchanges of fire.
Trump, who has beefed up the U.S. military presence in the region since taking office in January, has said he would prefer a deal over Iran’s nuclear program to armed confrontation and on March 7 said he had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks.
Iranian officials said at the time that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday.
Direct talks would not occur without the explicit approval of Khamenei, who in February said negotiations with the U.S. were “not smart, wise, or honorable.”
REUTERS
