Iran and America will start high-level talks amid fears of conflict. world News
Iranian and US officials will begin face-to-face talks in Oman today, following weeks of threats of military action by Donald Trump.
America is sending its Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the Muscat summit, where he will meet Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
It comes amid an ongoing US naval buildup near Iran, which Mr Trump has described as an “armada”.
The Iranian regime has repeatedly threatened military action since it launched a bloody crackdown against protesters who took to the streets of cities across the country last month.
Although his rhetoric has cooled somewhat since its peak, the White House has said the president is willing to abandon diplomacy.
His press secretary, Carolyn Leavitt, told reporters on Thursday: “While these conversations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian regime that as commander in chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world, the President has several options other than diplomacy.”
Iran has also threatened to retaliate in case of attack. After which America recalled some personnel from its major military base in Qatar.
Iran threatens America with ‘regional war’
Then what is the meaning of conversation?
Iran has a long-running dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions.
The regime insists that its programme is for peaceful, not military, purposes, but the US and Israel have repeatedly accused the regime of developing nuclear weapons.
A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it would engage in talks “with responsibility, realism and seriousness” with a desire to reach a “mutually acceptable and respectful understanding on the nuclear issue”.
An anti-American mural at the former US embassy in Tehran. Photo: Reuters
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested they should cover more areas – including the regime’s arsenal of ballistic missiles, support for armed groups in the wider Middle East and “the treatment of its own people”.
Tehran has flatly refused to negotiate on its defence capabilities, including missiles and their range.
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Edmund Fitton-Brown, an analyst at the US think tank FDD, said it was “very difficult” to envision a breakthrough.
Therefore, military conflict “is more likely not to occur,” he said.
