ALBAWABA - Iranian officials told Al Jazeera that indirect talks with the US started with a meeting between Iran's foreign minister and his Omani counterpart.
This came after reports on Iranian state television that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had arrived in Muscat. Araghchi is in charge of the Iranian delegation, and President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is in charge of the US side. A US official told the Wall Street Journal that the commander of US Central Command is expected to join the talks.
There are fears that the talks could fail because the US is putting more pressure on the negotiations and tensions are rising. Iran wants the talks to only be about its nuclear program, but Washington wants to include Iran's missile program as well.
Before he left for Muscat, Araghchi warned that bringing up issues that weren't in the agreed-upon framework would ruin the talks and hold the US responsible for any possible failure.He said that Tehran was going into the talks "with open eyes and a clear memory of last year's events."
He also said that "mutual respect and shared interests are not slogans, but necessities." These are the first talks between Tehran and Washington since the US attacked Iranian nuclear sites in June, during the 12-day war that broke out after Israel attacked Iran.
Trump is closely watching the talks to see if an agreement can be reached. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that while diplomacy is still the main goal, "all options remain on the table," emphasizing Trump's demand that Iran must not have nuclear weapons.
Regional mediation efforts are still going on, with Qatar, Egypt, and other partners involved. China supported Iran's sovereignty, France asked Tehran to make concessions, and Russia offered to help solve the problem of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, warning that failure could lead to a bigger crisis in the region.
