Iran said yesterday it was giving high-level nuclear talks with the US today ‘a genuine chance’, after President Donald Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed.
Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, a Gulf state that has mediated between the West and the Islamic Republic before.
In a sign of the difficult road ahead for negotiators, the White House reiterated Trump’s threat yesterday, saying he wants Iran to know there will be ‘all hell to pay’ if it does not agree to abandon its nuclear programme.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, who will lead the US delegation, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying the administration’s ‘red line’ is to stop Iran from being able to produce a nuclear weapon and that dismantling its nuclear programme is the opening demand. But he suggested Washington would be open to ‘other ways to find compromise.’
The January return to the White House of Trump, who in his first term withdrew the US from a 2015 big-power accord with Tehran, has again brought a tougher approach to a Middle Eastern power whose nuclear programme Washington’s ally Israel regards as an existential threat.
At the same time, Iran and allied groups have been weakened by the military offensives Israel has launched across the region, including air strikes in Iran, after being attacked from Gaza by Hamas in October 2023.
Iranian state media said the talks would be led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Witkoff, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi as intermediary.
The Iranian foreign ministry said yesterday the US should value the Islamic Republic’s decision to engage in talks despite what it called Washington’s ‘prevailing confrontational hoopla’.
“We intend to assess the other side’s intent and resolve this today,” spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei posted on X. “In earnest and with candid vigilance, we are giving diplomacy a genuine chance.”
&uuid=(email))