President Donald Trump made a surprise statement on Monday that the United States and Iran were poised to start direct talks on Tehran&& s nuclear program, however Iran & s foreign minister said the conversations in Oman would be indirect, Reuters reported.In a further sign of the difficult path to any offer between the 2 geopolitical enemies, Trump issued a plain caution that if the talks are not successful, && Iran is going to remain in great danger.&& Iran had pushed back versus Trump&& s demands in current weeks that it straight negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed, and it seemed adhering to that position on Monday.&& We & re having direct talks with Iran, and they & ve started.
It&& ll go on Saturday.
We have a huge conference, and we&& ll see what can take place,& & Trump informed reporters in the Oval Office throughout a conference with checking out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.&& And I think everyone agrees that doing a deal would be preferable,& & Trump stated.
He added that Saturday&& s talks with Iran would be at an extremely high level, without elaborating.
He declined to state where the talks would take place however held out the possibility that a deal could be reached.Iran&& s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on X that indirect top-level talks would be kept in Oman, including: && It is as much a chance as it is a test.
The ball remains in America&& s court.
& The United States and Iran held indirect talks throughout former President Joe Biden&& s term however they made little if any development.
The last recognized direct negotiations in between the two governments were under then-President Barack Obama, who led the 2015 worldwide nuclear deal that Trump later on abandoned.Warnings by Trump of military action versus Iran had actually jangled currently tense nerves across the Middle East after open warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, military strikes on Yemen, a change of leadership in Syria and Israeli-Iranian exchanges of fire.Trump, who has beefed up the United States military existence in the region given that taking office in January, has actually said he would prefer an offer over Iran&& s nuclear program to armed conflict and on March 7 stated he had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks, read the report.Iranian authorities said at the time that Tehran would not be bullied into settlements.&& Iran can not have a nuclear weapon and if the talks aren&& t successful I really think it will be a very bad day for Iran,& & Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday.Direct talks would not take place without the explicit approval of Khamenei, who in February said settlements with the United States were && not smart, wise, or honorable.
& Hours before Trump&& s statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry representative Esmail Baghaei stated Iran was waiting for a United States action to Tehran&& s proposition for indirect negotiations.
He said the Islamic Republic thought it was making a generous, responsible and honorable offer.After Trump spoke, a senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, informed Reuters: && The talks will not be direct & hellip; It will be with Oman&& s mediation.
& Oman, which maintains great relations with both the United States and Iran, has actually been a longtime channel for messages between the competing states.Iran&& s Nournews, affiliated with the country&& s leading security body, described Trump&& s statement about a prepared direct conference as part of a && psychological operation focused on influencing domestic and international popular opinion.&& A second Iranian authorities, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated over the weekend there was perhaps a window of around 2 months to reach an offer, citing concerns that Iran&& s longtime opponent Israel might release its own attack if talks took longer.Netanyahu, who has shown little support for United States negotiations with Iran, stated if diplomacy might prevent Tehran from ever getting nuclear weapons && in a full way, the way it was performed in Libya, I think that would be a good idea.&& During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 deal in between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran&& s sensitive nuclear operate in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump also reimposed sweeping United States sanctions, Reuters reported.Since then, Iran has actually far surpassed that offer&& s limits on uranium enrichment.Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to establish nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is sensible for a civilian atomic energy program.Tehran states its nuclear program is entirely for civilian energy purposes.The White House National Security Council did not immediately react to a request for details.The shift comes at a precarious time for Tehran&& s local & Axis of Resistance & which it has actually developed at fantastic cost over years to oppose Israel and United States impact.
The axis has actually been seriously deteriorated considering that the Palestinian group Hamas& & attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, tipped the Middle East into conflict.Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have actually been hammered by Israel considering that the Gaza war started while the Houthi movement in Yemen has been targeted by United States airstrikes considering that last month.
Israel severely damaged Iran&& s air defenses last year.The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another crucial Iranian ally, has more deteriorated the Islamic Republic&& s influence.The post Trump says United States and Iran set for direct nuclear talks; Tehran states they will be indirect very first appeared on TINS News.