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Reuters

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States and Iran were beginning direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a surprise announcement after Iranian officials had appeared to rebuff US calls for such negotiations.
But in a sign of the difficult path ahead to any deal between the two geopolitical foes, Trump issued a stark warning that if the talks are unsuccessful, “Iran is going to be in great danger”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed the meeting on Tuesday, saying the talks will take place in Oman on Saturday.
“It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court,” Araghchi said in a social media post.
Iran’s state media said the talks would be led by Araghchi and Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, with the intermediation of Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.
Iran had pushed back against Trump’s demands in recent weeks that it directly negotiate over its nuclear programme or be bombed, but it had recently left the door open to indirect discussions.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during talks with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable,” Trump said.
Trump said Saturday’s talks with Iran would be at a very high level but declined to elaborate. He also held out the possibility that a deal could be reached.
The US and Iran held indirect talks during former president Joe Biden’s term but they made little if any progress. The last known direct negotiations between the two governments were under then president Barack Obama, who spearheaded the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned.
Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran
Donald Trump, US President
Warnings by Trump of military action against Iran had jangled already tense nerves across the Middle East after open warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, military strikes on Yemen, a change of leadership in Syria and Israeli-Iranian exchanges of fire.
Trump has said he would prefer a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme to a military confrontation and he said on March 7 he had written to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks. Iranian officials said at the time that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Such talks would not take place without the explicit approval of Khamenei, who in February said negotiations with the US were “not smart, wise, or honourable”.
Hours before Trump’s announcement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran was awaiting a US response to Tehran’s proposal for indirect negotiations. He said the Islamic Republic believed it was making a generous, responsible and honourable offer.
A senior Iranian official said over the weekend that Tehran wanted to continue indirect negotiations through Oman, a long-time channel for messages between the rival states.
The Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was possibly a window of around two months to reach a deal, citing worries that Iran’s long-time foe Israel might launch its own attack if talks took longer.


During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump also reimposed sweeping US sanctions.
Since then, Iran has far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy programme.
Tehran says its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes.
The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for details.
The shift comes at a precarious time for Tehran’s regional “axis of resistance” which it has established at great cost over decades to oppose Israel and US influence. The axis has been severely weakened since Palestinian group Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, tipped the Middle East into conflict.
Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been hammered by Israel since the Gaza war began, while the Houthi movement in Yemen has been targeted by US air strikes since last month. Israel severely damaged Iran’s air defences last year.
The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another key Iranian ally, has further weakened the Islamic republic’s influence.


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During meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu at the White House, Trump warned Tehran of ‘great danger’ if talks are not successful


During meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu at the White House, Trump warned Tehran of ‘great danger’ if talks are not successful.
