President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that the United States and Iran were about to start direct talks on the Tehran nuclear program, but the Iranian Foreign Minister said that Oman’s discussions are indirect.
In another sign of the difficult way to come to any agreement between the two geopolitical enemies, Trump has issued a striking warning that if the talks fail, “Iran will be in great danger”.
Iran had rejected Trump’s requests in recent weeks to directly negotiate its nuclear program or be bombed, and it seemed to be held in this position on Monday.
“We have direct interviews with Iran, and they started. It will go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we will see what can happen,” Trump told journalists in the oval office during interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“And I think everyone agrees that making an agreement would be preferable,” said Trump. Trump said on Saturday’s talks with Iran would be at a very high level, but refused to develop. He also refused to say where the talks would take place, but made the possibility that an agreement could be concluded.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi Posted on X These high -level indirect talks would take place in Oman, adding: “It is as much an opportunity as a test. The ball is in the American courtyard.”
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States and Iran were about to start Direct Tehran nuclear program, warning that if talks fail, “Iran will be in great danger”. However, a senior Iranian official said that any negotiation would be indirect, Oman acting as an intermediary.
Years for direct talks
The United States and Iran had indirect talks during Joe Biden’s presidential mandate, but they have made little or no progress. The latest direct negotiations known between the two governments were under President Barack Obama, who directed the 2015 International Nuclear Agreement that Trump later abandoned.
Trump said he would prefer an agreement to Iran’s nuclear program to a military confrontation and he declared on March 7 that he had written to the Supreme Chief of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks. Iranian officials said at the time that Tehran would not be intimidated in negotiations.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and if the talks do not succeed, I really think it will be a very bad day for Iran,” Trump said in the oval office on Monday.
These talks would not occur without the explicit approval of Khamenei, who, in February, said that negotiations with the United States were “not intelligent, wise or honorable”.
A few hours before Trump’s announcement, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said that Iran was expecting an American response to Tehran’s proposal for indirect negotiations. He said that the Islamic Republic thought it was making a generous, responsible and honorable offer.
After Trump spoke, a senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “talks will not be direct … It will be with the mediation of Oman.” Oman, who has good relations with the United States and Iran, has been a longtime channel for messages between rival states.
Iran’s Nournews, affiliated with the country’s security organization, described Trump’s declaration on a direct meeting provided for in the context of a “psychological operation aimed at influencing national and international public opinion”.
A second Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said during the weekend, there was perhaps a window of about two months to conclude an agreement, citing concerns that the long-standing enemy of Iran, Israel, could launch his own attack if the talks took more time.
Netanyahu, who has shown little support for American negotiations with Iran, said that if diplomacy could prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons “in a complete way, the way it was done in Libya, I think it would be a good thing.”
We have withdrawn from the agreement
During his first mandate, Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 agreement between Iran and the global powers designed to slow down the sensitive nuclear work of Iran in exchange for the relief of the sanctions. Trump has also reprinted American scanning sanctions.
Since then, Iran has far exceeded the limits of this agreement on the enrichment of uranium.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine program of developing nuclear weapons capacity by enriching uranium at a high level of fissile purity, above what they say they are justifiable for a civil atomic energy program.
Tehran says that his nuclear program is entirely for civil energy purposes.
The National Security Council of the White House did not immediately respond to a request for details.
The change arrives at a precarious moment for the regional “resistance axis” of Tehran which he established at a high price during the decades to oppose Israel and the influence of the United States. The axis has been seriously weakened since the attack on the Palestinian group of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, reversed the Middle East in conflict.
Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon has been hammered by Israel since the start of the war in Gaza while the Houthi movement in Yemen has been targeted by American air strikes since last month. Israel seriously damaged Iran’s air defenses last year.
The fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, another key Iranian ally, has further weakened the influence of Iran.
