The Foreign Minister of Iran met with officials in Saudi Arabia and Qatar prior to the commencement of nuclear discussions.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar ahead of the fourth round of indirect nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, which are scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Al Jazeera reported on Saturday (May 10).

The future course of Iran's nuclear program, uranium enrichment and the lifting of sanctions are among the topics discussed.

In a statement in Doha on Saturday, Araghchi said that if the United States' goal is to take away our nuclear rights, Tehran will not back down from any of our rights.

Iran has insisted that its program is for civilian purposes only and that it does not seek to develop any nuclear weapons.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Araghchi said, "I have said before that if the goal of the agreement is to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon, then that has already been achieved, and the agreement is possible."

But if the other side makes unrealistic demands, then there will be problems, he said.

In an interview with Breitbart News on Friday, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who will be involved in the talks in Oman, said the United States takes Iran’s claim that it does not want nuclear weapons seriously. But Washington is setting some conditions to test that position.

He said that if they really want it, they need to shut down their enrichment facilities, remove their centrifuges, mix their fuel stocks and send them away and convert them to civilian projects.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Iran can import enriched uranium from abroad for civilian energy if it wants.

Tehran confirmed on Friday that the talks were progressing ahead of Araghchi’s visit to Gulf countries on Saturday.

Araghchi told Iranian state media that the talks were progressing and that the more they progressed, the more consultations and reviews they needed.

Omani Foreign Minister Sayyed Badr Albusaidi said on Friday that the delayed talks would be held in the Omani capital Muscat after coordination with Iran and the United States. The talks were previously scheduled for May 3 in Rome, but Oman postponed them for "logistical reasons."

Long-running dispute over nuclear program

International tensions have long been simmering over Iran's nuclear program. The talks are a new attempt at diplomatic reconciliation that has stalled for years.

A multilateral deal reached in 2015 under the Barack Obama administration, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saw Iran agree to reduce its uranium enrichment and allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities in exchange for sanctions relief.

But the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 after Donald Trump became president, effectively collapsing it.

Since then, many Western countries have viewed Iran's program as an attempt to build weapons. Tehran has consistently denied this.

Trump himself has admitted he has been hesitant about his policy on Iran. In his second term, he said his advisers were pressuring him, even though he wanted a fully verifiable solution through diplomacy.

In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Trump said he wanted a deal, not war.

But he added that there were two paths open — one is to destroy it gracefully, the other is to destroy it brutally.

Persian Gulf Activities

Regarding his visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Saturday, Araghchi said it was part of ongoing consultations with neighbors. The aim of the visit is to discuss "concerns and mutual interests."

He told Al Jazeera that we have regular contacts with Saudi Arabia, but the purpose of this visit was specifically to consult with our Saudi colleagues on the US-Iran talks.

He said, "We want to make sure that everyone knows what is going on, and that no one has any concerns... I hope that no one will object if an agreement is reached."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaie said an Iranian technical delegation was present at the Oman talks on Saturday. He did not comment on the US delegation.