US ‘encouraged’ by latest Iran nuclear talks ahead of Trump's Gulf visit

MUSCAT, Oman — The Trump administration sounded cautiously optimistic after US and Iranian negotiators concluded their latest round of nuclear talks on Sunday, agreeing to reconvene to hammer out the technical details of a potential deal.

“We are encouraged by today’s outcome and look forward to our next meeting, which will happen in the near future,” a senior US administration official said, adding that an agreement was reached “to continue working through technical elements.”

Iran’s reaction after the talks wrapped in Muscat was more measured. Its foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, called the talks “difficult but useful” and said the Gulf sultanate of Oman would coordinate the fifth round of dialogue.

Sources in the Omani capital tell Al-Monitor the talks appear to be trending in the right direction. Trump is said to be hoping for a quick win, as peace deals in Gaza and Ukraine remain out of reach, and the Iranians are eager for sanctions relief to revive their beleaguered economy. The recent ceasefire between Iran’s proxy in Yemen, the Houthis, and the United States has also given renewed energy to the talks, the sources said.

Sunday’s talks lasted more than three hours and were led by top US negotiator Steve Witkoff and his Iranian counterpart in the talks, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi again served as the go-between by shuttling messages between the two delegations. Consistent with earlier talks, Witkoff and Araghchi also met face-to-face.

Trump, who will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week, has made clear that he favors a diplomatic solution over military action to address Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

But his administration has conveyed mixed messages on what it would permit under a future deal. Last week, Trump told reporters that he hadn’t decided whether Iran would be allowed to maintain a limited nuclear enrichment program for civilian purposes. However, Witkoff the following day described Iran’s enrichment program as a “red line” for the United States.

“No enrichment,” Witkoff said in an interview with the conservative Breitbart news outlet on Thursday. “That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan — those are their three enrichment facilities— have to be dismantled.”

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran could maintain a civilian nuclear program for its energy needs but must import the enriched material from abroad.

Whether the US is undecided on enrichment or deliberately inconsistent to preserve ambiguity in the negotiations remains unclear. For their part, Iranian officials describe Tehran’s right to domestic enrichment as non-negotiable.

Trump during his first term withdrew from the landmark agreement negotiated by former President Barack Obama, which limited Iran’s nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief. The 2015 nuclear deal capped Iran’s enrichment at 3.67%, the level needed to fuel nuclear power plants. After Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, Iran began violating its terms and is now enriching uranium to 60% purity — a short technical step away from the 90% level considered weapons-grade.

It’s since amassed enough nuclear material to build six nuclear bombs if further enriched, according to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran insists its nuclear program exists for peaceful purposes only, even as the IAEA says it’s the only non-nuclear weapons state enriching to this degree.

The Muscat-mediated talks are focused on Iran’s nuclear program, with other destabilizing issues like its missile development and proxy activities to be dealt with later, Witkoff told Breitbart. Sources in Oman warned that any effort by the Trump administration to expand the agenda beyond nuclear topics would jeopardize the talks, if not derail them entirely.

Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program is expected to be high on the agenda when Trump arrives in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Tuesday, before heading to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates later in the week.

The Gulf states have largely embraced the nuclear talks in contrast to 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its neighbors felt sidelined by the US-led negotiations and feared a deal would tip the regional balance of power in Iran’s favor. Riyadh and Tehran have since restored relations, reflecting a broader shift in the Gulf toward prioritizing economic prosperity over confrontation.

A day before the nuclear talks in Muscat, Araghchi visited Jeddah and Doha, where he met with Saudi and Qatari officials.