US President Donald Trump said Friday that Washington held \u201cvery good talks\u201d on Iran after the two sides held an indirect dialogue in Oman.<\/p>\n
Iran, for its part, said it expected to hold more negotiations with the United States, hailing a \u201cpositive atmosphere\u201d during a day of talks in the Gulf sultanate.<\/p>\n
With an American naval group led by an aircraft carrier in Middle Eastern waters, US and Iranian delegations held talks in Muscat mediated by Oman without publicly meeting face-to-face.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the talks concluded, the US announced new sanctions against shipping entities and vessels, aimed at curbing Iran\u2019s oil exports. But it was not clear if the move was linked to the talks.<\/p>\n
The talks were the first between the two foes since the United States joined Israel\u2019s war with Iran in June with strikes on nuclear sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe likewise had very good talks on Iran,\u201d Trump told reporters on board Air Force One en route to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, adding, \u201cwe\u2019re going to meet again early next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, as Iran warned against further threats after Washington raised the spectre of new military action, Trump said: \u201cIf they don\u2019t make a deal, the consequences are very steep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led Iran\u2019s delegation in Muscat, said talks \u201cfocused exclusively\u201d on the Iranian nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb but Tehran insists is peaceful.<\/p>\n
The US delegation, led by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s influential son-in-law Jared Kushner, had also wanted Tehran\u2019s backing for militant groups, its ballistic missile program and treatment of protesters on the agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a very positive atmosphere, our arguments were exchanged and the views of the other side were shared with us,\u201d Araghchi told Iranian state TV, adding that the two sides had \u201cagreed to continue negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to the official IRNA news agency, Araghchi expressed hope that Washington would refrain from \u201cthreats and pressure\u201d so that \u201cthe talks can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Destabilizing power\u2019
\nAdmiral Brad Cooper, the commander of US Central Command, was present at the talks, according to images published by the Oman News Agency.<\/p>\n
Multiple sessions of talks in the morning and afternoon saw both sides shuttling to and from the residence of Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry of US ally Qatar expressed hope the talks would \u201clead to a comprehensive agreement that serves the interests of both parties and enhances security and stability in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Washington held \u201cvery good talks\u201d on Iran after the two sides held an indirect dialogue in Oman. Iran, for its part, said it expected to hold more negotiations with the United States, hailing a \u201cpositive atmosphere\u201d during a day of talks in the Gulf sultanate. With an American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15791,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions\/15791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}