DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States will hold talks in the sultanate of Oman on Saturday in an attempt to jump-start negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Even before the talks, however, there was a dispute over just how the negotiations would go. President Donald Trump insists they’ll be direct negotiations. However, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he’d be speaking indirectly through a mediator to U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
President Donald Trump’s nominees for intelligence and nuclear positions in his administration will appear before a Senate committee at 9:30 a.m. ET. Watch in the player above.
The difference may seem small, but it matters. Indirect talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
Trump has imposed new sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting the country. He has again suggested military action against Iran remained a possibility, while emphasizing he still believed a new deal could be reached by writing a letter to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei has warned Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own.
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