Tehran, Iran – Iran and the United States are expected to hold more nuclear negotiations mediated by Oman amid efforts to shape an agreement to avoid the US attacking Iran.
The Iranian delegation will arrive in Muscat on Friday evening in advance of political and, for the first time, technical talks on Saturday.
Let’s take a look at what we can expect, as well as all the latest developments and context.
Who’s at the talks?
Like the two previous rounds of talks in Italy and Oman, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the delegations.
But the experts leading the technical talks are also crucial, as they will iron out the details and wording of any agreement.
For Tehran, Araghchi’s political deputy, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, and deputy for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, are heading the expert-level delegation.
Takht-Ravanchi is a Western-educated diplomat who led Iran’s mission to the United Nations and was ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Gharibabadi led Iran’s representative office to international organisations in Vienna and represented the Iranian judiciary internationally.
He was also involved in indirect nuclear negotiations between the administrations of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and former US President Joe Biden.
The chief technical expert whom US President Donald Trump selected is Michael
Anton, the newly appointed director of policy planning at the US Department of State.
Anton was a speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice during the George W Bush administration.
He also held managerial roles in the private sector, including at Citigroup and BlackRock investment firms. During the first Trump administration, he served on the National Security Council to shape government messaging.
Anton’s work may be eased by the fact that he has not yet publicly adopted a stance on Iran’s nuclear programme.
What will they discuss?
Iran has emphasised it will not discuss its defence capabilities or regional influence, but is ready for an agreement that ensures it won’t build a nuclear bomb, which it has repeatedly stated it doesn’t want.
The technical talks aim to set the steps Tehran would take to curb its nuclear programme, and how Washington and Europe would lift their devastating sanctions, which have continued despite the US calling the talks with Iran “constructive”.
Iran, for its part, wants to lift at least part of the comprehensive sanctions against its oil, banking and related industries, some of which are imposed under multiple designations.
A deal could unfreeze some of Iran’s billions of dollars of export revenue that remain blocked in foreign banks by sanctions.
Negotiators may also attempt to nail down waivers, orders to allow Iran to sell oil or access the global payments system.
Iranian officials like President Masoud Pezeshkian have gone a step further, saying Iran would even welcome direct, large-scale investment by US companies in its market, which is brimming with financial opportunity.
On the agenda will also be a cap on Iran’s uranium enrichment, which is now at up to 60 percent, a short step from the 90 percent required for a bomb.
Under the terms of an earlier nuclear agreement with world powers (the JCPOA), Iran had committed to a cap of 3.67 percent enrichment, sufficient for civilian uses like power generation.
However, when Trump unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA in 2018 and slapped punishing sanctions on Iran, Tehran started enriching at much higher levels and using more advanced reactors than those specified in the JCPOA.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog that will again monitor Iran’s commitments, is expected to send a team to Iran in the next few days for talks.
Will there be an agreement soon?
While likely to advance the positive atmosphere surrounding the talks, Saturday’s meetings are only a step among many required for any deal.
But time is of the essence, especially in the months leading up to an October deadline, when the 2015 nuclear deal’s “snapback” mechanism expires.
It allows any of the signatories to initiate a process to reinstate all UN sanctions on Iran in the case of significant noncompliance, like enriching uranium at levels higher than 3.67 percent. Iran wants to avoid snapback.
Iran’s Araghchi has visited China and Russia to coordinate a position, while accusing Israel of “undermining” the negotiations.
Witkoff was also in Moscow on Friday to discuss the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Araghchi has said he is ready to visit Paris, Berlin and London for direct talks with the three European JCPOA signatories.
“I was ready to do it before Iran commenced its indirect dialogue with the U.S., but the E3 opted out,” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signalled to his followers, using religious symbolism, this week, that they must not refuse a deal with the US.
He recounted how Jafar al-Sadiq, the sixth imam revered in Shia Islam, made a deal with his enemy some 1,300 years ago, adding that any deal would not indicate the “dominance of disbelief and deceit” over Muslims.
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