Iran has confirmed a new round of indirect nuclear talks with the United States will be held on Sunday in Muscat, Oman, as efforts intensify to revive stalled negotiations over Tehran’s uranium enrichment program and the lifting of U.S. sanctions.
The announcement came Tuesday from Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, who noted that the meeting had been postponed from an earlier expected date due to scheduling conflicts involving Iran’s chief negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, who is attending the Oslo Forum in Norway.
This sixth round of talks follows the submission of a U.S. proposal for a renewed nuclear deal, which Iran has criticized for containing ambiguities and lacking key elements from previous negotiations, chiefly, the removal of crippling economic sanctions. Iran said it will respond with a “reasonable, logical and balanced” counterproposal via mediator Oman.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement during his first term, said on Monday that the upcoming dialogue could determine whether a diplomatic solution is still viable or if military options will be considered.
The core issue remains Iran’s uranium enrichment, which Tehran maintains as a sovereign right and currently stands at 60 percent purity, well above the 3.67 percent limit set in the 2015 accord, but still below the 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon. The U.S. and its allies view the enrichment as a red line and continue to accuse Iran of harboring ambitions to build atomic weapons—an allegation Iran denies.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi dismissed suggestions of a diplomatic deadlock, stressing the complexity and sensitivity of international negotiations. “What matters to us is that we can safeguard the national interests of the country through these talks,” he said in an interview with the official IRNA news agency.
The talks come as the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), holds a Board of Governors meeting in Vienna. A recent IAEA report criticized Tehran’s cooperation as “less than satisfactory,” particularly over unexplained nuclear traces at undeclared sites. Iran has denounced the report as biased, accusing the agency of relying on forged evidence supplied by Israel.
Chief negotiator Araghchi warned against any resolution by Western powers at the IAEA meeting that could condemn Iran, saying such a move would trigger a strong reaction from Tehran, including a reduction in cooperation with the agency.
With tensions high and mutual distrust persisting, Sunday’s meeting is seen as a critical test of diplomatic will, as both sides navigate a narrow path between negotiation and confrontation.
Written By Rodney Mbua
