The White House has claimed that the upcoming Iran-U.S. talks in Oman will be “direct,” after Tehran announced that the two sides will hold high-level “indirect” negotiations on Saturday.
“First of all, when it comes to Saturday, I won’t get ahead of the president. He has said there will be direct talks with Iran on Saturday,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.
She was echoing U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that the two sides would begin “direct” talks in Oman.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, during a meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said several times that the format of the negotiations would be “indirect”.
On Tuesday evening, Araqchi said Washington has agreed to hold indirect negotiations.
“As long as ‘maximum pressure’ and threats exist, there is no ground for fair negotiations, and we will not hold direct negotiations,” he said.
On March 7, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had sent a letter to Iran calling for nuclear negotiations. Tehran responded to the letter later that month, saying it rejects direct talks with Washington over its contradictory and hostile approach but remains open to indirect negotiations.
