Iran and US conclude a fourth round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program in Oman

DUBAI United Arab Emirates AP Iran and the United States held a fourth round of negotiations Sunday over Tehran s rapidly advancing nuclear campaign just ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump to the Middle East this week The talks ran for certain three hours in Muscat the capital of Oman which has been mediating the negotiations commented a U S official Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also mentioned the talks took place that long and that a decision on the next round of talks is under discussion Baghaei called the talks arduous but useful The U S official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations offered a little bit more describing them as being both indirect and direct Agreement was reached to move forward with the talks to continue working through technical elements the U S official explained We are encouraged by the present day s outcome and look forward to our next meeting which will happen in the near future Iran insisted they only took place indirectly possibly over internal political pressures within the Islamic Republic The talks seek to limit Iran s nuclear operation in exchange for the lifting of particular of the crushing economic sanctions the U S has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran s project if a deal isn t reached Iranian bureaucrats increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels Meanwhile Israel has threatened to strike Iran s nuclear facilities on their own if it feels threatened further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip The fourth round comes ahead of Trump s trip The talks again saw Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U S Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff lead the negotiations They have met and spoken face-to-face but the majority of the negotiations appear to have been indirect with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi shuttling messages between the two sides The discussions included useful and original ideas reflecting a shared wish to reach an honorable agreement al-Busaidi wrote afterward on the social platform X Iran has insisted that keeping its ability to enrich uranium is a red line for its theocracy with Araghchi before the talks describing Iran s venture as springing from the blood of our nuclear scientists Israel is widely suspected of carrying out assassinations targeting the campaign s scientists From our viewpoint enrichment is a subject that should definitely continue and there is no room for compromise on that Araghchi informed Iranian state television after the talks It is manageable that we consider several limits on its dimensions amount and level for trust building similar to the past Witkoff has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at then later saying that all enrichment must stop An enrichment activity can never exist in the state of Iran ever again Witkoff reported the right-wing Breitbart news site in a piece published Friday That s our red line No enrichment That means dismantlement it means no weaponization and it means that Natanz Fordow and Isfahan those are their three enrichment facilities have to be dismantled Iran s nuclear deal with world powers capped Tehran s enrichment at and reduced its uranium stockpile to kilograms pounds That level is enough for nuclear power plants but far below weapons-grade levels of Since the nuclear deal s collapse in with Trump s unilateral withdrawal of the U S from the accord Iran has abandoned all limits on its operation and enriched uranium to up to purity a short technical step from weapons-grade levels There have also been a series of attacks at sea and on land in latest years stemming from the tensions even before the Israel-Hamas war began Iran faces pressures at home as talks continue Iran also faces challenges at home exacerbated by sanctions Its troubled rial currency once over million to has strengthened dramatically due to the talks alone to around to However the two sides still appear a long way from any deal even as time ticks away Iranian media broadly revealed a two-month deadline imposed by Trump in his initial letter sent to Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Trump reported he wrote the letter on March which made it to Iran via an Emirati diplomat on March putting the deadline in theory as Monday when Trump takes off from Washington for his trip to Saudi Arabia Qatar and the United Arab Emirates Iran s internal politics are still inflamed over the mandatory hijab or headscarf with women still ignoring the law on the streets of Tehran Rumors also persist over the authorities potentially increasing the cost of subsidized gasoline in the country which has sparked nationwide protests in the past Meanwhile the last round of talks in Oman on April took place as an explosion rocked a southern Iranian port killing dozens of people and injuring over others Iran still hasn t explained what caused the blast at the Shahid Rajaei port which has been linked to a shipment of missile fuel components to the Islamic Republic Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran Iran contributed to this assessment Source