Iran’s most senior diplomatic envoy is touring Gulf mediators this week to explore the contours of a potential agreement with Washington, as both sides signal cautious willingness to press ahead with negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme following a first round of talks last week in Oman, according to a Reuters report.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Tuesday, with Oman’s state news agency saying the two discussed ways to reach a “balanced and just” agreement between Iran and the United States. Larijani is expected to travel next to Qatar, which has also played a mediating role in several Middle East crises.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said the trip had been pre-planned and described last week’s Oman talks as productive. “After the talks, we felt there was understanding and consensus to continue the diplomatic process,” he said. The date and venue for the next round of negotiations has yet to be announced.
The diplomatic activity comes after US President Donald Trump deployed a naval flotilla to the region and threatened military intervention last month during a government crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran, though he ultimately held back.
Trump joined an Israeli bombing campaign last year that struck Iranian nuclear sites.
Missiles emerge as key sticking point
Washington is seeking to broaden the scope of any agreement beyond the nuclear file to include curbs on Iran’s ballistic missile programme, one of the largest in the Middle East. Tehran has flatly rejected that demand, saying its arsenal — rebuilt since last year’s 12-day Israeli and US bombing campaign — is non-negotiable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to press Trump at a Washington meeting on Wednesday to ensure any deal includes missile limitations. Baghaei pushed back sharply, saying the US “must act independently of foreign pressures, especially Israeli pressures that ignore the interests of the region and even the US.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Tehran will continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights, including the right to uranium enrichment.
Enrichment remains unresolved
Washington has demanded Iran surrender its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity — a relatively short technical step from the 90% threshold considered weapons grade. The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslami, indicated on Monday that any dilution of that stockpile would be contingent on a full lifting of sanctions.
Asked whether the US would permit Iran to continue limited enrichment, Vice President JD Vance, speaking during a visit to Armenia on Monday, declined to commit. “I think President Trump is going to make the ultimate determination about where we draw the red lines in the negotiations,” he said.
Iran and the US held five rounds of nuclear talks last year before the process collapsed over disputes on enrichment. Since the strikes on its facilities, Tehran has said it has halted enrichment activity, while maintaining its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
Oil prices eased on Tuesday as traders continued to monitor the state of Iran-US relations.
(information from Reuters)
