Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has confirmed that senior representatives of the regime in Tehran and the United States engage in “indirect talks” in Oman this weekend.
US President Donald Trump had announced that the US is undertaking direct negotiations with Iran during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
“There’s a major meeting going on between us and Iran. That will take place on Saturday, and it will be top level,” Trump said, in a surprise announcement that is said to have left Netanyahu “unsettled.”
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he added. “If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing.”
While Araghchi emphasized that the talks would be indirect, Trump has repeatedly insisted that direct negotiations are underway – suggesting that American diplomats are speaking face-to-face with their Iranian counterparts.
It would be the first time since the 2015 nuclear agreement talks that officials from both countries sit in the same room.
Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018.
The US president has also praised Turkish President Erdogan for “taking over Syria”.
He claimed he had a “great” relationship with Erdogan and was confident that he could “work out” issues between Israel and Turkey.
