Tehran: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that an upcoming indirect negotiations with the United States on Iran’s nuclear program would be able to reach an agreement as long as Washington proves “necessary and full political will,” according to Iran’s IRIB News Agency. He made a speech for several hours in a post confirming Iran and the United States will hold “indirect high-level negotiations” in Oman on Saturday.
“At present, our preference is to hold negotiations indirectly, and we have no intention of turning it into direct negotiations,” Araghchi said, adding that if the other party has “necessary and sufficient will”, a direct or indirect agreement can be reached. He added that the ball is now in U.S. court.
Araghchi stressed that Iran’s nuclear program was completely “peaceful and legal”, adding that Iran was ready to resolve existing ambiguities about its nuclear activities. He said he would negotiate on behalf of Iran and that the U.S. special envoy to Steve Witkoff in the Middle East will be the U.S. representative.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that he would engage in “direct negotiations” with Iran. The Bureau of News reported that since early March, Trump said he had continued the differences in talks since sending a letter to Iranian leaders through the United Arab Emirates.
Iran later confirmed that it received the letter, while rejecting face-to-face negotiations, although it opened the door to indirect participation. In an interview with NBC News in late March, Trump threatened to launch an “unprecedented military strike” against Iran if it refuses to negotiate on its nuclear program.
Iran signed a nuclear agreement with six major countries (UK, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States) in July 2015, officially known as the Joint Integrated Action Plan, accepting restrictions on the nuclear program to restore sanctions. However, the U.S. withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and restored sanctions, prompting Iran to expand some of its nuclear commitments. There has not been significant progress in efforts to restore the nuclear agreement.
