Trump says Iran talks 'going okay' as two nations agree to next round of discussions

Iran and the United States will resume negotiations next week over Tehran’s fast-expanding nuclear program, Iranian state television said Saturday, marking the end of the first round of talks between the two nations since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Iran’s state-run media stated that US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “briefly spoke” together, the first time the two countries have done so since the Obama administration.

Tehran’s assertion that the two parties spoke face-to-face, although briefly, shows that the conversations went well, even for Iranian state TV, which has long been dominated by hardliners.

In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the White House described the discussions as “very positive and constructive,” while conceding the issues that need to be resolved “are very complicated.”

“Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,” the White House said.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday while flying to Miami for a UFC event that the talks are “going okay.”

“I can’t tell you because nothing matters until you get it done so I don’t like talking about it but it’s going ok. The Iran situation is going pretty good, I think,” he said.

The next round of talks will take place on Saturday, April 19, according to the Iranian and American statements.

This first round of talks began at around 3:30 pm local time. The two parties discussed for more than two hours near Muscat, Oman’s capital, until approximately 5:50 pm local time. The convoy reported to be transporting Witkoff returned to Muscat before vanishing in traffic near the US Embassy.

The stakes could not be greater for the two countries, which have been at odds for half a century.  Trump has regularly threatened to launch airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program if a deal is not achieved.  Iranian authorities are increasingly warning that they may seek a nuclear bomb using their uranium stockpile, which has been enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Talks took place Saturday afternoon in Oman

Associated Press journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leave the Omani Foreign Ministry on Saturday afternoon and then speed off into the outskirts of Muscat. The convoy went into a compound, and a few minutes later, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on the social platform X that the “indirect talks” had begun.

Afterward, Araghchi described the meeting as constructive to Iranian state TV, with four rounds of messages exchanged during the indirect portion.

“Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations — so-called ’talks for the sake of talks,’ wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations,” he said. “Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task.”

That the two men spoke face-to-face satisfied a demand of the Americans. Trump and Witkoff both had described the talks as being “direct.”

“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is our position today,” Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his trip. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”

He added: “Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability.”

Araghchi, however, sought to downplay the encounter as “a brief initial conversation, greetings and polite exchanges” — likely to avoid drawing the anger of hard-liners in Iran.

Badr al-Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister who shuttled between the two sides, said the countries have a “shared aim of concluding a fair and binding agreement.”

“I would like to thank my two colleagues for this engagement, which took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints and ultimately achieving regional and global peace, security and stability,” al-Busaidi wrote on X. “We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal.”

Sanctions relief and enrichment remain top issues

While the US side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today, Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20%.

One thing it won’t do is give up its program entirely. That makes the proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution” — unworkable.

Iranians including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.