WASINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the United States out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said, “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the sides agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal. A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress”.
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure”.
Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as an intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.
Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment programme — a potential pathway to nuclear bombs — as an “existential threat”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.
Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No”.
However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.
Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.
The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.
Western powers accuse Iran of harbouring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy programme.
Tehran says its nuclear programme is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.
Separately, Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, arrived in Oman on Friday ahead of the talks with the US.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X that “Araghchi and his accompanying delegation arrived in Muscat for the third round of Iran-US talks”.
Iran’s Mehr news agency released a brief video showing the foreign minister disembarking from an Iranian government plane in Muscat.
Baqaei said Araghchi would be leading the delegation of diplomats and technical experts in the indirect discussions with the US side.
US President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will represent the US in the talks.
The latest round will include expert-level talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, with Michael Anton, who serves as the State Department’s head of policy planning, leading the technical discussions on the US side, the department said.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Deputy Foreign Ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will lead the Iranian technical team.
Baqaei wrote on X that Iran’s delegation is “resolved to secure our nation’s legitimate and lawful right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while taking reasonable steps to demonstrate that our programme is entirely peaceful”.
“Termination of unlawful and inhumane sanctions in an objective and speedy manner is a priority that we seek to achieve,” he added.
According to Baqaei, the dialogue will again be mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Saturday morning.
The meeting follows two earlier rounds of Omani-mediated negotiations in Muscat and Rome, starting on April 12.
