London – Iranian officials confirmed on Monday that Tehran would celebrate indirect “high -level conversations with US representatives in Oman this weekend with respect to Iran’s nuclear program, although it seemed to contradict the statement of President Donald Trump that negotiations are” direct “in nature.
Trump told reporters in the Oval office on Monday: “We are having direct conversations with Iran and have begun. It will be Saturday. We have a great meeting and we will see what can happen.”
“You know, many people say: ‘Oh, maybe you are going through substitutes or are not trying directly. You are treating through other countries.’ No, we are dealing with them directly.
When asked Tuesday if the conversations would be direct, said a National House Safety spokesman ABC News: “The president was clear in his comments.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that a meeting will take place in Oman on April 12, although he emphasized that they would be “high -level indirect conversations.”
President Donald Trump meets with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the Oval Office of the White House, on April 7, 2025, in Washington.
Kevin Mohatt/Reuters
“It’s as an opportunity as a test,” Araghchi said in a publication to social networks.
The Iranian government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajarani also said at a press conference on Tuesday that the next conversations with the United States will be “indirect.”
“We believe in negotiations,” he said, as cited by the news agency of the State Islamic Republic. “We had previously declared that if the respect language is used, we will negotiate.”
“The details will arise during the negotiations,” Mohajerani added. “As negotiations have not started, there are no details that we can share now,” he said.
“As a negotiating part with an equal perspective towards conversations, what matters to us focuses on our national interests, anything that improves the situation for our people and the issues that have previously been discussed. With luck, we will have wise negotiations ahead,” he added.
The United States and Iran have been involved in indirect conversations several times in recent years. The country has traditionally played a mediating role between Washington and Tehran, even during the conversations held there in 2023.
Iranian officials so far have rejected Trump’s offer to participate in direct conversations. President Masoud Peeshkian said in March that “although direct negotiations between the two parties are rejected, it has been declared that the path for indirect negotiations is open.”
If the direct conversations occur as Trump said, they would be the first public public negotiations between the United States and Iran since the President left the Comprehensive Integral Action Agreement of 2015 in 2018.
In recent weeks, Trump has threatened a possible military action against Iran to prevent nuclear weapons from developing.
“I think everyone agrees that making an agreement would be preferable to do the obvious,” said the president on Monday, speaking together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “And it is obvious is not something that I want to get involved or, frankly, that Israel wants to participate if they can avoid it,” he said.
“So, let’s see if we can avoid it,” Trump continued. “But it is becoming a very dangerous territory. And I hope those conversations are successful. And I think it would be the best for Iran if they succeed.”
Shannon K. Kingston and Michelle Stoddart of ABC News contributed to this report.
