Iran seeks ‘fair agreement’ in nuclear talks with US

Iran and the United States have concluded a first round of talks in Oman over Tehran’s nuclear programme – the highest level meeting between the two nations since 2018.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had told Iranian state television ahead of the talks that his country wanted a “fair agreement”.

President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers in 2018, and has long said he would make a “better” deal.

The talks are seen as an important first step in establishing whether a deal can be done.

They lasted two and a half hours, and both sides agreed to resume them next week, Araghchi said.

Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, described the talks as “indirect”, with the delegations seated in separate rooms and exchanging messages via Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi.

Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading the US delegation, had previously only spoken of meeting face-to-face.

However, Araghchi wrote on social media following the talks that he and Witkoff “talked for a few minutes” with Busaidi when leaving the talks.

He said that the next round may not happen in Oman, but would still be mediated by the nation.

“Neither we, nor the other party, want fruitless negotiations, discussions for discussions’ sake, time wasting or talks that drag on forever,” Araghchi told Iranian state television.

Busaidi wrote on X that he was “proud” to have mediated the negotiations “with the shared aim of concluding a fair and binding agreement”.

He said the talks “took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints and ultimately achieving regional and global peace, security and stability”.

The most important issue at stake is what kind of deal each side would be willing to accept.

Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader via the United Arab Emirates last month, saying he wanted a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert possible military strikes by the US and Israel.

Iran hopes a deal to limit, but not dismantle, its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

“Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement from an equal position, and if the other side also comes from the same position, then hopefully there will be a chance for an initial understanding that will lead to a path of negotiations,” Araghchi said.

He added that the team that came with him was made up of experts “knowledgeable in this particular field and who have a history of negotiating on this issue”.

An unnamed source in Oman told the news agency Reuters that the talks would also seek to de-escalate regional tensions and secure prisoner exchanges.

Trump had disclosed that the talks would take place during a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Monday. The Israeli prime minister said on Tuesday that both leaders had agreed that Iran “will not have nuclear weapons”.

Netanyahu has called for a “Libya-style deal”, referring to the north African nation completely dismantling its weapons programme in an agreement reached with Western powers in 2003. That may be completely unacceptable to Iran.

Iranian officials have made it clear that the negotiations will only focus on its nuclear programme, not its broader defence capability, such as its ballistic missile programme.

On the eve of the talks on Friday, Trump said that he wanted Iran “to be a wonderful, great, happy country – but they can’t have nuclear weapons”.

Trump has warned that the US would use military force if a deal was not reached, and Iran has repeatedly said it will not negotiate under pressure.

The US president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that it would “be a very bad day for Iran” if the talks were unsuccessful.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

However, since Trump pulled out of the 2015 agreement – which expires later this year – Iran has increasingly breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.

Under the terms of the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to only enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity for the next 15 years.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran had stockpiled uranium enriched to 60% purity and could swiftly move to 90%, which would be weapons-grade.

The 2015 nuclear deal took nearly two years of intensive negotiations. At the start of this new effort to reach an agreement, Iran’s programme is far more developed and complex, and the wider region is far more volatile.