US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is slated to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on Sunday to discuss Iran’s response to a recent American proposal for a nuclear deal, a US official announced late on Wednesday.
Iran had stated on Monday that it would soon submit a counter-proposal for a nuclear agreement to the United States in response to a US offer that Tehran deems “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump indicated that discussions would continue.
Trump conveyed in a Monday podcast that he felt less confident about Iran agreeing to halt uranium enrichment as part of a nuclear deal with Washington. The US president has been seeking a new nuclear agreement to impose limitations on Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment activities and has threatened the Islamic Republic with bombing if no accord is reached.
Iran has consistently maintained that it has no intentions of developing nuclear weapons and is solely interested in atomic power generation and other peaceful projects. During his first White House term, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers, which had placed restrictions on Tehran’s uranium enrichment program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
The uneasy relationship between Iran and the US spans decades. Tehran accuses Washington of interfering in its affairs, citing events ranging from a 1953 coup against a prime minister to the 2020 killing of its military commander in a US drone strike. Washington, conversely, points to Iran’s support for militant groups in the Middle East, Lebanon, and Yemen, asserting that Iran poses a threat to US ally Israel and Washington’s interests in the region. These militant groups refer to themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US influence in the Middle East.
Trump remarked on Wednesday that US personnel were being relocated from the Middle East because “it could be a dangerous place.” The US decision to evacuate some personnel comes at a highly volatile juncture in the region.
