Iranian state media celebrated the conclusion of a fourth round of “indirect” talks with President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Monday, citing Iranian officials who called the discussions “more serious and candid” without giving specific policy updates.
President Trump announced in March that he had sent a letter proposing to Tehran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the two countries engage in dialogue, particularly regarding Iran’s illicit nuclear enrichment program. In February Khamenei had called any dialogue with America “unintelligent and dishonorable,” only for Iran to confirm that it would, in fact, engage in talks with the United States in response to Trump’s invitation. Tehran has insisted the talks are “indirect” because an intermediary assigned by the Iranian government reportedly passed notes back and forth between the American and Iranian delegations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Witkoff completed a fourth round of Oman-mediated talks in Muscat, the Omani capital, on Sunday, which the Iranian government claimed lasted for three hours. While the talks have not resulted in any meaningful agreement on any issue, Araghchi declared himself satisfied with the alleged progress of the discussions in remarks this week.
“We’ve moved beyond generalities and started dealing with more detailed issues,” the Iranian state outlet PressTV quoted Araghchi as saying. “Naturally, that makes the talks more difficult — but despite the intensity and complexity, the negotiations were constructive.”
Araghchi called the talks a “step forward” and immediately confirmed this weekend that Iran was interested in a fifth round of dialogue.
“We’ve decided to move ahead with the next round. Both sides are committed,” he said, according to PressTV. “The exact date and venue will be determined by Oman’s foreign minister, based on the schedules of both teams. I expect it will take place in about a week, give or take.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian independently remarked on the talks during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, asserting that Iran is “serious” about its commitment to the negotiations.
“We engage in dialogue because we desire peace. Our country is committed to promoting stability and security in the region,” Pezeshkian reportedly said, “and we believe that the nations in this area are like brothers, living together in harmony and tranquility.”
The Iranian president, who is subordinate to Khamenei, used the opportunity to condemn the nation of Israel, which Iran routinely threatens to destroy.
“There is no need for external intervention from beyond the region to address our concerns. It is the Zionist regime that seeks to create insecurity and unrest in the area,” he said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
The specific objective of the U.S.-Iran talks is currently unclear, although both sides have revealed that the heart of the conversation is addressing America’s rejection of Iran’s nuclear development and Iran’s demand that America not sanction its economy in response to the nuclear program.
In an interview with Breitbart News’s Matthew Boyle published on Friday, Witkoff emphasized that ensuring that the Iranian regime, the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, does not acquire nuclear weapons capability is a main priority for the Trump administration.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line,” Witkoff told Breitbart News. “No enrichment. 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.”
Witkoff also addressed concerns in Israel and the United States that the end result of the talks may be an agreement similar to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that lifted American sanctions preemptively to encourage Iran to halt its nuclear development. Iran almost entirely ignored its responsibilities in the JCPOA, as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), leading to the failure of the agreement.
“First of all, we’re never doing a JCPOA deal where sanctions come off and there’s no sunsetting of their obligations. That doesn’t make sense,” Witkoff told Breitbart News. “That was a mismatched procedure in JCPOA. We believe that they cannot have enrichment, they cannot have centrifuges, they cannot have anything that allows them to build a weapon.”
PressTV quoted and condemned Witkoff’s comments without identifying the source of the remarks as Breitbart News, describing his comments as “deeply inflammatory and undiplomatic.”
Araghchi, the foreign minister, described Witkoff as making “numerous contradictory statements” and rejected the red lines he defined in his interview.
“Enrichment is one of the major achievements and a source of national pride. It has come at a high cost — including the lives of our nuclear scientists. It is absolutely non-negotiable,” Araghchi insisted.
“From our point of view, enrichment must continue. There’s absolutely no room for compromise on that,” Araghchi stated elsewhere. “While we may agree to some temporary limits — on levels, quantities, or scale — for the sake of building trust, but the fundamental right to enrichment is non-negotiable.”
The Iranian top diplomat clarified that the “objective of these talks is to achieve sanctions relief” for Iran, something that Witkoff insisted was impossible without ending enrichment.
