Iran, US Prepare For Oman Talks After Deadly Protest Crackdown
Muscat: Iran and the US were preparing for talks in Oman on Friday; While Washington wants to see if there is any possibility of diplomatic progress on Iran’s nuclear program and other issues, it has refused to rule out military intervention.
The talks, which were finally approved by both sides late Wednesday after uncertainty over the location, timing and format, would be the first such encounter between the two foes since the United States joined Israel’s war against the Islamic Republic with strikes on nuclear sites in June.
President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will lead their delegations in negotiations in the secretive Gulf Sultanate, which periodically mediates between the countries.
Iranian state news agency IRNA reported late Thursday that Araghchi had arrived in Muscat for talks.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Thursday evening that it had a “responsibility not to miss the opportunity to use diplomacy” to maintain peace and hoped Washington would participate in the discussions “with responsibility, realism and seriousness.”
The meeting took place less than a month after the peak of a wave of nationwide protests against religious leaders in Iran; Rights groups say it was suppressed in an unprecedented crackdown that has left thousands dead.
“They’re negotiating,” Trump said of Iran on Thursday.
“They don’t want us to hit them, we have a big fleet going there,” he added, referring to the aircraft carrier group he repeatedly called an “armada.”
Trump initially threatened military action against Tehran over its crackdown on protesters, even telling demonstrators that “help is on the way.”
But his rhetoric in recent days has focused on reining in Iran’s nuclear program, which the West fears aims to make a bomb.
US Vice President J.D. Vance told SiriusXM in an interview broadcast Wednesday that Trump will “keep his options open.”
“He’s going to talk to everybody, he’s going to try to do what he can through non-military means, and if he thinks the military is the only option, he’s going to eventually choose that,” Vance said.
‘Flexibility’ against US demands
In his speech in Doha, the capital of Qatar, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on the Iranian administration to “really enter into negotiations” and said that there is “a great fear of escalation of military tension in the region”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by Turkish newspapers as saying: “So far, I see that the parties want to make room for diplomacy,” adding that conflict “is not the solution.”
There were tensions ahead of the talks over whether regional countries would be included in the meeting and whether Tehran’s support for proxies and ballistic missile programs (two US concerns that Iran has resisted) would be discussed.
The New York Times, citing unnamed Iranian officials, said that the US agreed that the negotiations would exclude regional actors and that the meeting would focus on the nuclear issue, but would also discuss missiles and militant groups “in order to create an agreement framework.”
“Iran continues to show inflexibility in responding to US demands, reducing the likelihood of Iran and the US reaching a diplomatic solution,” the US-based Institute for the Study of War said. he said.
With the threat of American military action still looming on the horizon, the United States has maneuvered a naval group led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln into the region, while Iran has repeatedly promised to retaliate against U.S. bases if attacked.
“We are ready to defend, and it is the US president who must choose between compromise or war,” army spokesman General Mohammed Akraminia was quoted as saying on state television on Thursday. He warned that Iran has “easy” access to US regional bases.
