The White House says Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff had “very positive and constructive” talks with Iran on Saturday.
The White House issued a statement on the much-anticipated meeting in Oman, where an American delegation of Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Oman Ana Escrogima had discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Dr. Abbas Araghchi. Omani Foreign Minister Said Badr hosted the meeting in Muscat.
“The discussions were very positive and constructive, and the United States deeply thanks the Sultanate of Oman for its support of this initiative,” the White House said in a statement.
“Special Envoy Witkoff underscored to Dr. Araghchi that he had instructions from President Trump to resolve our two nations’ differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible, the White House added, going on to note the complexity of the issues at hand.
“These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome. The sides agreed to meet again next Saturday,” the statement concluded.
President Donald Trump foreshadowed Saturday’s meeting last Monday, while speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office. Trump and Netanyahu said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started… On Saturday we have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen, and I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious,” Trump said.
“And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or, frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it. So we’re going to see if we can avoid it, but it’s getting to be very dangerous territory,” he added.
He went on to say Iran would be in “great danger” if Saturday’s talks were unsuccessful.
“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. And I hate to say it — great danger — because they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
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