Iranian state television confirmed the negotiations were under way in Muscat on Saturday, though neither Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi nor US envoy Steve Witkoff disclosed any details on the talks they will lead.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic republic for decades. Iran, for its part, has signalled it is eager to get sanctions relief as its economy continues to suffer.

US President Donald Trump was confident of clinching a new agreement that would block Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb. Speaking on board Air Force One, en route to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, Trump expressed cautious optimism. “The Iran situation is coming out very well,” he said. “We have had a lot of talks with them and I think we are going to have a deal. I would much rather have a deal than the other alternative. That would be good for humanity.” But Trump repeated threats stressing that military options remained on the table if diplomacy failed, saying: “There are some people that want to make a different kind of a deal – a much nastier deal – and I don’t want that to happen to Iran if we can avoid it.”

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told state TV that the country’s defence and missile programmes were not being discussed during the negotiations in Oman. “The question of defence capacities and the country’s missiles is not [on the agenda] and has not been raised in the indirect talks with the United States,” Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday.

Tensions have remained high since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement in 2018, prompting a series of escalations. Iran has since abandoned all limits on its nuclear programme, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity – near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. Western countries, including the US, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr. But Tehran says ending its enrichment programme or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks. (Aljazeera)