Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has arrived in Oman for mediated talks with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying there is a chance the two sides can reach an initial understanding that leads to a timetable for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The aim is to agree a format and parameters for talks that in months could lead to some US economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted and a recasting of Iran’s civil nuclear programme.
Such a breakthrough, highly implausible a month ago, would represent the biggest improvement in US-Iranian relations since the two countries signed a nuclear deal in 2015. Donald Trump removed the US from the agreement in 2018, claiming “the heart of the deal was a giant fiction – that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program”.
In the initial indirect...
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