Iran, US meet again over Tehran’s N-plan amid conflicting demands
Iran and the United States held a fourth round of negotiations Sunday over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, just ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump to West Asia this week.
The talks ran for some three hours in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which has been mediating the negotiations, said a US official. Iranian state television quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as also saying the talks took place for that long and that a decision on the next round of talks is under discussion.
Baghaei did not elaborate. The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations, offered a little bit more, describing them as being both indirect and direct.
“Agreement was reached to move forward with the talks to continue working through technical elements,” the US official said. “We are encouraged by today's outcome and look forward to our next meeting, which will happen in the near future.”
The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic Republic, closing in on half a century of enmity.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s 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.
Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on their own if it feels threatened, further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Iran has insisted that keeping its ability to enrich uranium is a red line for its theocracy. US envoy Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.
“An enrichment programme can never exist in the state of Iran ever again,” Witkoff told the right-wing Breitbart news site.
