Iran, US Hold ‘Productive’ Talks in Oman, Agree to Resume Next Week, Tehran Says

This handout picture provided by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) meeting with Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi in Muscat on April 12, 2025. (Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout picture provided by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) meeting with Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi in Muscat on April 12, 2025. (Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)
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Iran, US Hold ‘Productive’ Talks in Oman, Agree to Resume Next Week, Tehran Says

This handout picture provided by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) meeting with Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi in Muscat on April 12, 2025. (Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout picture provided by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) meeting with Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi in Muscat on April 12, 2025. (Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)

Iran and the US held "productive" talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene next week, Tehran said, a dialogue meant to address Tehran's escalating nuclear program with President Donald Trump threatening military action if there is no deal.

"I think we are very close to a basis for negotiations and if we can conclude this basis next week, we’ll have gone a long way and will be able to start real discussions based on that,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television.

Araghchi said the talks - a first between Iran and a Trump administration, including his first term in 2017-21 - took place in a "productive, calm and positive atmosphere".

"Both sides have agreed to continue the talks ... probably next Saturday ... Iran and the US side want an agreement in the short term. We do not want talks for (the sake of) talks," Araghchi added.

There was no immediate US comment on the talks.

Saturday's exchanges were indirect and mediated by Oman, as Iran had wanted, rather than face-to-face, as Trump had demanded. Each delegation had its separate room and exchanged messages via Oman's foreign minister, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.

Araghchi said his delegation had a brief encounter with its US counterpart headed by Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, after they exited the talks.

"After the end of more than 2-1/2 hours of indirect talks, the heads of the Iranian and American delegations spoke for a few minutes in the presence of the Omani foreign minister as they left the talks. It (the encounter) was based on our political etiquette," Araghchi said.

"The current focus of the talks will be de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions (against Iran) in exchange for controlling Iran's nuclear program," an Omani source told Reuters.

Baghaei denied this account but did not specify what was false.

Oman has long been an intermediary between Western powers and Iran, having brokered the release of several foreign citizens and dual nationals held by Tehran.

Tehran approached the talks warily, skeptical they could yield a deal and suspicious of Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if it does not halt its accelerating uranium enrichment program - regarded by the West as a possible pathway to nuclear weapons.

While each side has talked up the chances of some progress, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons capability, but Western countries and Israel believe it is covertly trying to develop the means to build an atomic bomb.

"This is a beginning. So it is normal at this stage for the two sides to present to each other their fundamental positions through the Omani intermediary," Baghaei said.

Signs of progress could help cool tensions in a region aflame since 2023 with wars in Gaza and Lebanon, missile fire between Iran and Israel, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and the overthrow of the government in Syria.

HIGH STAKES

However, failure would aggravate fears of a wider conflagration across a region that exports much of the world's oil. Tehran has cautioned neighboring countries that have US bases that they would face "severe consequences" if they were involved in any US military attack on Iran.

"There is a chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party (US) enters the talks with an equal stance," Araghchi told Iranian TV.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on key state matters, has given Araghchi "full authority" for the talks, an Iranian official told Reuters.

Iran has ruled out negotiating its defense capabilities such as its ballistic missile program.

Western nations say Iran's enrichment of uranium, a nuclear fuel source, has gone far beyond the requirements of a civilian energy program and has produced stocks at a level of fissile purity close to those required in warheads.

Trump, who has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.

Since then, Iran's nuclear program has leaped forward, including by enriching uranium to 60% fissile purity, a technical step from the levels needed for a bomb.

Israel, Washington's closest Middle East ally, regards Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat and has long threatened to attack Iran if diplomacy fails to curb its nuclear ambitions.

Tehran's influence throughout the Middle East has been severely weakened over the past 18 months, with its regional allies - known as the "Axis of Resistance" - either dismantled or badly damaged since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December.



Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
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Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iran will react to any reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, without elaborating on what actions Tehran might take.

A French diplomatic source told Reuters last week that European powers would have to restore UN sanctions on Iran under the so-called "snapback mechanism" if there were no nuclear deal that guaranteed European security interests.

The "snapback mechanism" is a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran under a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures in return for restrictions on Iran's nuclear program.

"The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference, without giving further details.

The 2015 deal with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia and China - known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - states that if the parties cannot resolve accusations of "significant non-performance" by Iran, the "snapback mechanism" process can be triggered by the 15-member UN Security Council.

"The European parties, who are constantly trying to use this possibility as a tool, have themselves committed gross and fundamental violations of their obligations under the JCPOA," Baghaei said.

"They have failed to fulfill the duties they had undertaken under the JCPOA, so they have no legal or moral standing to resort to this mechanism."

Western countries accuse Iran of plotting to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies.

The United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 under the first administration of President Donald Trump, who called the agreement "weak".

Trump, whose second presidency began in January, has urged Tehran to return to nuclear negotiations on a new deal after a ceasefire was reached last month that ended a 12-day air war between Iran and Israel that destabilized the Middle East.

When asked if Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would meet with Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Baghaei said no date or location had been set for resuming the US-Iran nuclear talks.