Iran and the United States held meetings in Oman on Saturday (12) and agreed to meet again next week, said the Iranian side, referring to the dialogue that aims to approach Tehran’s growing nuclear program, with President Donald Trump threatening to take military measures if there is no agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state TV that his delegation had a brief meeting with his American counterpart, led by Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, after they came out of Oman -mediated indirect negotiations.
“After the end of more than two and a half hours of indirect negotiations, the heads of the Iranian and American delegations talked for a few minutes in the presence of Oman’s Foreign Minister, leaving the negotiations. (The meeting) was based on our political label,” said Araqchi.
He said negotiations-the first between Iran and the Trump administration, including their first term in 2017-21-occurred in a “productive, calm and positive atmosphere.”
“Both sides agreed to continue negotiations… probably next Saturday… Iran and the US want a short -term agreement. We don’t want negotiations for negotiations,” Araqchi said.
“I believe we are very close to a base for negotiations and if we can complete this base next week, we will have advanced a lot and we can start real discussions on this basis.”
There was no immediate US commentary on negotiations.
Highlighting the profound divergence between the US and Iran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei previously said in X that each delegation had its room separately and would exchange messages through Oman’s Foreign Minister.
“The current focus of negotiations will be to relieve regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to relieve sanctions (against Iran) in exchange for control of the Iranian nuclear program,” an Omanense source told Reuters. Baghaei denied this version, but did not specify what was false.
Oman has been an intermediary between the Western powers and Iran for a long time, having brokered the release of several foreign citizens and people with double nationality detained by the Islamic Republic.
Tehran addressed negotiations with caution, skeptical that they could result in an agreement and suspicious of Trump, which repeatedly repeatedly bombarding Iran if the country did not interrupt its growing uranium enrichment program – seen by the West as a possible path to nuclear weapons.
Although both sides have mentioned the chances of some progress, they remain distant in a dispute that has been going on for over two decades. Iran has long denied nuclear weapons, but Western countries and Israel believe that the country is secretly trying to develop means to build an atomic bomb.
Saturday’s messages were indirect, as Iran wanted, instead of the face, as Trump had required.
“This is a beginning. Therefore, it is normal at this stage that the two sides present to each other their fundamental positions through the Omanense intermediary,” said Baghaei.
Signs of progress can help calm tensions in an inflamed region since 2023 with wars in Gaza and Lebanon, missile shots between Iran and Israel, Hourthi attacks on Red Sea ships and the overthrow of the government in Syria.
This content was originally published in Iran and the US should resume negotiations in Oman next week on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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