The United States and Iran held indirect talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in Oman on Friday, their first meeting in months after America launched airstrikes on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities.
The development also comes just weeks after nationwide protests have gripped the Islamic Republic, the AP news agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the talks as a “very good start”, although the parties met with Oman’s top diplomat at different times at a palace on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Muscat.
Both Araghchi and Omani officials said the talks were aimed at exploring ways to conduct future negotiations, effectively returning to the beginning of discussions on Iran’s nuclear program that unfolded a month ago a year ago, before Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June.
Who else attended the meeting?
In an unusual development, US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, head of the US military’s Central Command, whose presence had not been reported in previous rounds, also attended the meeting. This could have been a signal to Tehran that Washington could still strike Iran if the talks fail.
With the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships in the region, along with more fighter jets, the United States now likely has the military firepower to launch an attack if it wanted to, the news agency said.
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The Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, meanwhile, have expressed concern that a military strike in the region could trigger a war that could in turn draw them in. That threat is already real after U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone near Lincoln and Iran tried to intercept a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the report said.
A senior Iranian diplomat offers a positive note
Araghchi struck a cautiously optimistic tone when speaking in a live interview from Muscat on Iranian state television, noting that Friday’s talks took place in several rounds and were mainly focused on laying the framework for further talks.
“We will consult with our capitals on the next steps and the results will be forwarded to the foreign minister of Oman,” Araghchi said.
“The mistrust that has developed is a serious challenge facing negotiations,” he added. “We have to solve this problem first and then enter the next level of negotiations.”
The nuclear program in the spotlight
It is still unclear exactly what Iran is willing to negotiate at the talks. Tehran insists that the discussion will focus only on its nuclear program.
But the Al Jazeera satellite news channel reported that diplomats from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar had tabled a proposal under which Iran would suspend enrichment for three years, ship its highly enriched uranium out of the country and commit “not to launch ballistic missiles.”
Read also | A second wave of popular anger is rising in Iran
Russia has signaled it will take uranium, but Iran has said ending the program or shipping uranium were non-starters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the talks must include all of these issues. “I’m not sure you can come to an agreement with those guys, but we’ll try to find out,” he was quoted as saying by the AP.
