Envoys from Iran and the US arrive in Oman for first round of talks over
Tehran's nuclear program
[April 12, 2025]
By JON GAMBRELL
MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Envoys from Iran and the United States arrived
Saturday in Oman ahead of the first talks over Tehran's rapidly
advancing nuclear program since President Donald Trump returned to the
White House.
No overall agreement is immediately likely, but the stakes of the
negotiations couldn’t be higher for these two nations closing in on half
a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash
airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached.
Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear
weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade
levels.
Flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed a private
jet from Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, Russia, arrived in Oman on
Saturday morning. U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff had just met Russian
President Vladimir Putin on Friday there.
Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry released footage of Tehran's top
diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that Araghchi provided Iran’s
“stance and key points for the talks to be conveyed to the U.S. side.”
IRNA's report suggested the meeting would be held later Saturday.
“If there is sufficient will on both sides, we will decide on a
timetable. But it is still too early to talk about that,” Araghchi said,
in an audio clip published by IRNA. “What is clear now is that the
negotiations are indirect, and in our view only on the nuclear issue,
and will be conducted with the necessary will to reach an agreement that
is on an equal footing and leads to securing the national interests of
the Iranian people.”
Trump and Witkoff both have described the talks as being “direct.”
“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is
our position today,” Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his
trip. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going
to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”
He added: “Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of
your nuclear capability,”
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Tourists take photos at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat,
Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)
While the U.S. side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s
beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be
willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only
maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today,
Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons
if it so chooses and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a
short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from
negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal
in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at
least 20%.
One thing it won’t do is give up its program entirely. That makes
the proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a
so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities,
dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American
execution” — unworkable.
Iranians including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have held up what
ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who
was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab
Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust
the United States. ___
Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to
this report. ___
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