Iran’s foreign minister to have indirect talks with US envoy over nuclear plan

Dubai: Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday said he will meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman for the first negotiations under the Trump administration seeking to halt Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the Middle East.

Speaking to Iranian state television from Algeria, Abbas Araghchi maintained the talks would be indirect, likely with Omani mediators shuttling between the two parties. US President Donald Trump, in announcing the negotiations on Monday, described them as being direct talks.

Years of indirect talks under the Biden administration failed to reach any success, as Tehran now enriches uranium up to 60 per cent purity -- a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Both the US and Israel have threatened Iran

with military attack over the program, while officials in Tehran increasingly warn they could potentially pursue a nuclear bomb. “Our main goal in the talks is naturally restoring rights of people as well as lifting sanctions,” Araghchi said. “For the time being, indirect is our preference. And we have no plan to alter it to direct.”