FILE – This combo exhibits Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, proper, White Home particular envoy, pictured in Washington, on March 19, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Iran and america stood poised Friday to carry negotiations in Oman not less than over Tehran’s nuclear program after a chaotic week that originally noticed plans for regional international locations to participate in talks in Turkey.
The 2 international locations have returned to Oman, a sultanate on the japanese fringe of the Arabian Peninsula, months after rounds of conferences turned to ash following Israel’s launch of a 12-day struggle towards Iran again in June. The U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear websites throughout that struggle, possible destroying lots of the centrifuges that spun uranium to close weapons-grade purity. Israel’s assaults decimated Iran’s air defenses and focused its ballistic missile arsenal as properly.
U.S. officers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio imagine Iran’s theocracy is now at its weakest level since its 1979 Islamic Revolution after nationwide protests final month represented the best problem to 86-year-old Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule. Khamenei’s forces responded with a bloody crackdown that killed hundreds and reportedly noticed tens of hundreds arrested — and spurred new army threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to focus on the nation.
With the plane service USS Abraham Lincoln and different warships within the area together with extra fighter jets, the U.S. now possible has the army firepower to launch an assault if it needed. However whether or not assaults may very well be sufficient to power Iran to alter its methods — or doubtlessly topple its authorities — stays removed from a positive factor.
In the meantime, Gulf Arab nations worry an assault might spark a regional struggle dragging them in as properly. That menace is actual — already, U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone close to the Lincoln and Iran tried to cease a U.S.-flagged ship within the Strait of Hormuz.
“President Trump seeks to nook Iran into reaching a negotiated answer, strong-arming its leaders into making concessions on the nuclear deal,” stated Alissa Pavia, a fellow on the Atlantic Council. “The Iranians, then again, are weakened after years of proxy warfare, financial disaster, and inner unrest. Trump is conscious of this vulnerability and is hoping to make use of it to extract concessions and make inroads towards a renewed nuclear settlement.”
Few particulars on talks forward of assembly
The scope, nature and contributors within the talks stay unclear, simply hours earlier than they had been on account of start in Muscat, the Omani capital nestled within the Hajar Mountains. Officers at Oman’s borders on Thursday confirmed specific concern over anybody carrying cameras into the sultanate earlier than the negotiations.
On the Iranian facet, Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived at night time together with a number of Iranian diplomats, the state-run IRNA information company reported.
Flight-tracking knowledge confirmed the airplane that carried him to Muscat initially began its journey from Tabas, Iran, the positioning of the disastrous Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, when a U.S. Particular Forces mission tried to rescue hostages held after the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. A sandstorm in Tabas aborted the mission and eight service members died when a helicopter crashed right into a C-120 refueling plane there. Iran’s theocracy lengthy has portrayed the mission as God defeating the People.
Araghchi wrote on X that “Iran enters diplomacy with open eyes and a gentle reminiscence of the previous 12 months.”
“Commitments have to be honored,” he wrote. “Equal standing, mutual respect and mutual curiosity aren’t rhetoric — they’re a should and the pillars of a sturdy settlement.”
Forward of the assembly, a high adviser to Khamenei appeared to supply the theocracy’s help to the 63-year-old profession diplomat.
Araghchi “is a talented, strategic and reliable negotiator on the highest ranges of decision-making and army intelligence,” Ali Shamkhani wrote on X. “Troopers of the nation within the armed forces & generals of diplomacy, appearing beneath the order of the Chief, will safeguard the nation’s pursuits.”
On the U.S. facet, it appeared that talks could be led by U.S. Mideast particular envoy Steve Witkoff, a 68-year-old billionaire New York actual property mogul and longtime buddy to Trump. Touring with Witkoff on his Mideast journey up to now is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who in latest weeks has shared proposals for the Gaza Strip and took half in trilateral talks with Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi earlier on the journey.
The 2 males had traveled from Abu Dhabi to Qatar on Thursday night time for conferences with officers there, the Qatari-funded satellite tv for pc information community Al Jazeera reported. Qatar, which shares an offshore pure gasoline subject within the Persian Gulf with Iran, additionally hosts a serious U.S. army set up that Iran attacked again within the June struggle.
Nuclear program on the desk as a minimum
It stays unclear simply what phrases Iran shall be keen to barter on the talks. Tehran has maintained that these talks solely shall be on its nuclear program. Nevertheless, Al Jazeera reported that diplomats from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar provided Iran a proposal wherein Tehran would halt enrichment for 3 years, ship its extremely enriched uranium overseas and pledge “not provoke using ballistic missiles.”
Russia had signaled it might take the uranium, however Shamkhani in an interview earlier this week had stated ending this system or transport out the uranium had been nonstarters for the nation. In the meantime, the talks wouldn’t embody any pledge by Iran over its self-described “Axis of Resistance,” a community of militias within the area allied to Tehran as a deterrent to each Israel and the U.S. Nevertheless, Israeli assaults on the militiasduring its struggle on Hamas within the Gaza Strip decimated the community.
Rubio, America’s high diplomat, stated talks wanted to incorporate all these points.
“I feel to ensure that talks to truly result in one thing significant, they should embody sure issues, and that features the vary of their ballistic missiles,” Rubio informed journalists Wednesday. “That features their sponsorship of terrorist organizations throughout the area. That features the nuclear program, and that features the therapy of their very own individuals.”
He added: “I am unsure you possibly can attain a cope with these guys, however we will attempt to discover out.”
