The first round of talks between Washington and Tehran took place on Saturday in Muscat, Oman, where the officials from both countries exchanged messages indirectly. While Trump described talks to be ‘direct’, the Iranian side called negotiations ‘indirect’.
In his first public appearance following the ‘indirect’ talks with the US in Oman, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that the first round of talks with the United States went “well”. Khamenei’s comment is seen as an endorsement of the talks with Washington so far. While he stressed that Iran remains “pessimistic” about America, Khamenei underscored, “We are neither radically optimistic about the talks nor radically pessimistic about the talks.” The 85-year-old Khamenei added that the talks had been “implemented well in the first steps”.
Regarding the talks, Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said that the talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme could be described as constructive only if the Islamic republic showed “some level of political maturity and acted like a normal country”.
The first round of talks between Washington and Tehran took place on Saturday in Muscat, Oman, where the officials from the two countries exchanged messages indirectly.
While the two sides described the talks as “constructive”, Ebadi said, “We have to wait and see if the Iranian regime has reached that level of political maturity and wisdom to renounce its political ambitions and to act like a normal country. And that way, make sure that the threat of war is removed from the region.”
Notably, US President Donald Trump expressed his disappointment over the pace of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran as the two countries start a new round of pivotal negotiations.
The next round of negotiations between the US and Iran is likely to take place on Saturday in Rome, according to a source in the Italian government who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.
Trump has been repeatedly warning Iran of strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials have warned that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
(With inputs from AP)
