President Trump says US wants direct’ with Iran in nuke talks
President Donald Trump says the U.S. wants to deal with Iran “directly” to negotiate a deal over nuclear weapons.
Iran and the United States will hold a second round of rare discussions on April 19 over Tehran’s nuclear program after both sides described a meeting over the weekend, the highest-level one between the two nations since 2018 when Barack Obama was president, as “constructive.”
The Trump administration wants the new talks to be held in Rome, according to a report. Iran and the U.S. do not have formal diplomatic relations. The Islamic Republic’s mission to the United Nations in New York would not confirm whether Iran has agreed to Italy’s capital as the venue for the next meeting.
Here’s why the talks are happening, and what to expect from the meetings.
Iran-US talks: How did we get here?
During his first term, President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of a 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama administration between Iran and world nuclear powers.
That deal limited Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting some international sanctions on Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, said the accord was proving effective.
Trump walked away from the deal, which he described at the time as the “worst ever negotiated,” because he did not believe it did enough to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions, its ballistic missile programs, or Iran’s support for regional militant groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Iran insists − amid much international skepticism, including from the U.N.’s IAEA − that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, like energy and nuclear power, only. Whatever the case, its nuclear program has progressed since the collapse of the 2015 accord. In March, the IAEA said Iran had about 275kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity − enough to make some nuclear weapons. Some nuclear experts argue Iran could build an atomic bomb within months.
Why are Iran and the US talking now?
Trump has vowed to make a “better” deal with Iran.
He has also threatened military action on Iran if no deal is reached on halting its nuclear program. “We’ll be making a decision on Iran very quickly,” Trump said Sunday, after both countries said they held “positive” and “constructive” talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene on April 19.
Iran and the U.S. have not had formal diplomatic relations since the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979, when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days inside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In the decades since, the strained relationship between the two governments has been defined by mistrust and hostility.
Seyyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran and advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team, said in a WhatsApp message to USA TODAY that Iran has had a “problem” with direct talks with the U.S. because of what he said was the “excessive demands and attitude of the other side.”
He noted that Iran negotiated indirectly with the Biden administration “extensively.”
On Saturday, Iran’s lead negotiator in Muscat, Oman’s capital, was Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Trump sent his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. In a statement, the White House said Witkoff carried “instructions from President Trump to resolve our two nations’ differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible.” According to London-based Amwaj Media, which covers the region, the two sides discussed what limitations could be put on Iran’s nuclear program and the sanctions relief Trump was willing to offer in return.
Still, it was not clear if Iran and the U.S. held “direct” or “indirect” talks in Oman. The White House statement did not specify. Amwaj Media said the two sides gathered in different halls in the same building, with Oman’s foreign minister shuttling between rooms to exchange written ideas. Araghchi told Iranian state media that four rounds of exchanges took place over two and a half hours and he exchanged pleasantries with Witkoff only as the two sides were leaving the venue. The format for the next round of talks is also not clear.
What to make of Iran-US talks?
The U.S.’s closest regional ally Israel has historically been highly skeptical of any talks with Iran that could lead to a nuclear deal, partly because Iran has vowed to destroy Israel, its longtime adversary.
Senior Iranian military officials appear to be preparing for possible U.S. or Israeli military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
But some veteran Iran-watchers, such as Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a foreign affairs think tank, said that Trump’s “first diplomatic encounter” in Oman with Tehran could not have gone any better.” In a commentary, Parsi said that if Trump’s outreach on the issue works if could provide a “triple win for the U.S.: preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb, preventing war with Iran, and providing “major business opportunities for American businesses, which will create more jobs in the U.S.”
Parsi said that U.S. sanctions on Iran, according to a 2014 study covering the years 1995 to 2012, cost the U.S. economy between $135 billion and $175 billion in potential export revenue to Iran. He said this lost export revenue translates into between 50,000 and 66,000 lost U.S. job opportunities each year.
Richard Dearlove, the ex-head of British intelligence agency MI6, said in a USA TODAY interview on Thursday that Trump was right to try to talk to the Iranians. He called it a “good idea.”
Dearlove served as Britain’s top spy between 1999 and 2004, when Tony Blair was prime minister.
“Iran’s theocracy is in a really tough place, and the Axis of Resistance is in the process of being taken apart,” Dearlove said, referring to an informal coalition of Iran-supported militant groups spread across the Middle East. Its members include Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
“Syria has disappeared as a co-operative ally for the Iranians. Iran has suffered huge setbacks with Israel. I think the bottom line is that if the Iranians were to accelerate their nuclear program and weaponize that’s a red line for Israel and a red line for the Trump administration,” he said.
Dearlove added that if Iran-U.S. diplomacy failed then Tehran could be headed for a “crisis.”