Iran welcomes ‘encouraging signals’ from US ahead of new round of talks on Thursday

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - GENEVA — US and Iranian negotiators are expected to meet for a further round of talks in Geneva on Thursday in a sign that American negotiators believe Tehran is making serious proposals to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The Trump administration expects to receive the Iranian proposal by Tuesday, a senior US official said on Sunday.

⁠Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the earlier rounds of talks have produced “encouraging signals”, but warned that Tehran is prepared for any scenario ahead of another round of negotiations set for Thursday.

“Iran is committed to peace and stability in the region,” Pezeshkian wrote on X.

“Recent negotiations involved the exchange of practical proposals and yielded encouraging signals. However, we continue to closely monitor US actions and have made all necessary preparations for any potential scenario,” he said.

As fears loomed of renewed conflict after Washington carried out a major redeployment of military assets to the region, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he thought there was still a good chance of finding a diplomatic solution.

He told CBS that negotiators would probably meet on Thursday to discuss and try to make “a fast deal”. Alluding to US assets in the region as potential targets, however, he said: “If the US attacks us, then we have every right to defend ourselves.”

The cautious optimism came after Oman’s minister of foreign affairs, Badr Al Busaidi, confirmed a third round of indirect talks between the two sides in Switzerland.

“Pleased to confirm US-Iran negotiations are now set for Geneva this Thursday, with a positive push to go the extra mile toward finalizing the deal,” said Al Busaidi, who acts as a mediator in indirect talks between Washington and Tehran.

Iran and the US resumed talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in Oman earlier this month, and held a second round in Geneva last week. Although Washington and Tehran described the talks in overall positive terms, they failed to achieve a significant breakthrough.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who leads nuclear negotiations for Washington, said on Saturday that the US president was curious as to ‌why Iran has not yet “capitulated” and agreed to curb its nuclear program.

According to US media, the airpower Washington is amassing in the region is the greatest since its invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the past few days alone, the US has deployed more than 120 aircraft to the Middle East, while the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, is on its way to join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group that is already positioned in the Arabian Sea.

Araghchi reacted to Witkoff’s comments in a post on X, saying: “Curious to know why we do not capitulate? Because we are Iranian.”

The Iranian diplomat also said ⁠in an interview with CBS that a diplomatic solution with the US was still within reach. He told the Face the Nation moderator, Margaret Brennan, that Iran’s nuclear program was a matter of “dignity and pride” for Iranians.

“We have developed this technology by ourselves, by our scientists, and it is very dear to us because we have created it – we have paid a huge expense for that,” he said.

Araghchi cited among the costs two decades of US sanctions, the targeted killings of Iranian scientists, and US-Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities in June last year.

“We’re not going to give up. There is no legal reason to do that while everything is peaceful and safeguarded” by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Araghchi said.

As a “committed member” of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires non-nuclear-weapon states not to seek or acquire nuclear weapons, Iran is “ready to cooperate with the agency in full”, Araghchi added.

But he stressed that under the treaty, Tehran also has “every right to enjoy a peaceful nuclear energy, including enrichment”.

“Enrichment is a sensitive part of our negotiations. The American team knows about our position, and we know their position. We have already exchanged our concerns, and I think a solution is achievable,” the minister noted.

Washington, meanwhile, has also sought to expand the talks beyond the nuclear issue to cover Iran’s missile program and its support for regional armed groups. Iran has rejected the demands, and Araghchi told CBS that the Iranian delegation was “negotiating only nuclear” at the present time.

He also said that the Iranian delegation is working ahead of the next meeting to present a draft that includes “elements which can accommodate both sides’ concerns and interests” to reach a “fast deal”.

The minister added that the agreement would likely be “better” than the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated by former US President Barack Obama in 2015.

“There are elements that could be much better than the previous deal,” he said, without elaborating. “Right now, there is no need for too much detail. But we can agree on our nuclear program to remain peaceful forever, and at the same time, for more sanctions [to be] lifted.”

A previous negotiating effort collapsed last year when Israel launched attacks on Iran, triggering a 12-day war that Washington joined by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Trump issued new threats of military action in January following a deadly Iranian crackdown on antigovernment protesters. Tehran responded by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz – a vital oil export route for Gulf oil – and warning that it could strike US military bases in the region.

The exchange heightened fears of a regional war and prompted diplomatic efforts by Gulf states, including Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to prevent escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has lobbied Trump to negotiate a deal that will dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and resolve the issue of its ballistic missiles.

Mark Fitzpatrick, former director of the non-proliferation programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that zero uranium enrichment is out of the question for Tehran.

He also outlined a potential strategic rift between Trump and Netanyahu regarding their policy on Iran. Fitzpatrick argued that the Trump administration remains laser-focused on the nuclear threat, while the Israeli government seeks a much broader containment strategy. — Agencies

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