US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff
The United States and Iran concluded a fourth round of nuclear negotiations in Oman on Sunday, just days before President Donald Trump embarks on a high-stakes diplomatic tour of the Middle East.
The talks—hailed as “encouraging” by U.S. officials but described as “difficult” by Iran—come as the Trump administration ramps up pressure, making it clear that nothing short of the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program will be tolerated.
The negotiations, held in Muscat and facilitated by Omani mediators, lasted approximately three hours and involved both direct and indirect discussions between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
While Iran continues to insist on its right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, the U.S. delegation has maintained a firm stance, demanding a total halt to enrichment activities and the dismantling of key nuclear facilities.
Since the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018, Iran has significantly increased its uranium enrichment levels, now reaching up to 60% purity.
“The fourth round of indirect Iran-U.S. negotiations is concluded; difficult but useful talks to better understand each other’s positions and to find reasonable & realistic ways to address the differences. Next round will be coordinated and announced by Oman,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.
PBS reported:
The talks again saw Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff lead the negotiations. They have met and spoken face-to-face but the majority of the negotiations appear to have been indirect, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi shuttling messages between the two sides.
“The discussions included useful and original ideas reflecting a shared wish to reach an honorable agreement,” al-Busaidi wrote afterward on the social platform X.
Iran has insisted that keeping its ability to enrich uranium is a red line for its theocracy, with Araghchi before the talks describing Iran’s program as springing from “the blood of our nuclear scientists.” Israel is widely suspected of carrying out assassinations targeting the program’s scientists.
“From our viewpoint, enrichment is a subject that should definitely continue and there is no room for compromise on that,” Araghchi told Iranian state television after the talks. “It is possible that we consider some limits on its dimensions, amount and level for trust building, similar to the past.”
Witkoff has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again,” Witkoff told the right-wing Breitbart news site in a piece published Friday. “That’s our red line. No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan — those are their three enrichment facilities — have to be dismantled.”
