Iran Says Nuclear Talks With Trump Team Were ‘Constructive,’ Agrees To Meet Again

U.S. officials met with Iranian diplomats in Oman on Saturday in an effort to begin talks to reach a new nuclear deal, the Iranian state-owned news outlet IRIB reported.

IRIB reported that the U.S. and Iranian officials met “in a constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect,” according to CNN. The talks were the first direct contact between a member of the Trump administration and the Iranian regime. Officials plan to meet again next week.

“After more than two and a half hours of indirect negotiations, the heads of the Iranian and American delegations spoke for a few minutes in the presence of the Omani foreign minister as they left the talks,” IRIB reported.

The White House confirmed the talks and meeting between Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“Special Envoy Witkoff underscored to Dr. Araghchi that he had instructions from President Trump to resolve our two nations’ differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible,” the White House said in a statement. “These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome. The sides agreed to meet again next Saturday.”

The talks follow President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for a new nuclear deal and for Iran and its proxies, including the Houthis, to cease causing mayhem in the region.

Trump announced the talks on Monday, warning that if they are not successful, Iran would be “in great danger.”

“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger.” Trump said. “It’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, that’s all there is.”

“I think everybody agrees that doing a deal will be preferable to doing the obvious, and obvious is not something I want to be involved with or frankly that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it,” Trump added. “So we’re going to see if we can avoid it, but it’s getting to be very dangerous territory.”

On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that the talks will determine if Iran is serious about a deal.

“What happens on Saturday would, I suppose, determine whether there’s more,” Bruce said during a press conference. “Right now, this is a meeting that is arranged. It is not part of some larger scheme or framework. It is a meeting to determine whether or not the Iranians are serious.”

In a Washington Post op-ed earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said the Iranian regime is ready to make a deal with the United States. He wrote that the Iranian regime has been exchanging messages and letters with the Trump administration for weeks and that the communication represents “a genuine attempt to clarify positions and open a window toward diplomacy.”

Responding to Trump’s threat of taking military action if a deal cannot be made, Araghchi said that in order to move forward, there needs to be an agreement that there is no “military option” or “military solution.”

“The proud Iranian nation, whose strength my government relies on for real deterrence, will never accept coercion or imposition,” the foreign minister wrote.

Araghchi, acknowledging Trump’s strong opposition to Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal, made the claim that the Iranian regime has upheld the condition to not seek nuclear weapons.

A February report from the International Atomic Energy Agency found that Iran’s uranium stockpile is enriched to 60 percent purity — close to the 90 percent level considered weapons-grade and far above the 3.67 percent limit set by the Iran deal. The total enriched uranium stockpile now stands at approximately 8,294 kilograms, vastly exceeding the deal’s cap of 300 kilograms.

Trump withdrew from the deal during his first term in 2018, calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

Kassy Akiva contributed to this report.