Tehran: Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has said the upcoming indirect negotiations with the United States on Iran's nuclear program can lead to an agreement, provided that Washington demonstrates the "necessary and sufficient" political will, according to Iran's IRIB news agency.
He made the remarks a few hours after confirming in a post on social media platform X that Iran and the United States would meet in Oman later this week for "indirect high-level talks", IANS reported.
Araghchi said, "At present, our preference is to hold the negotiations indirectly, and we have no intention of turning them into direct ones". He added that if the other side has the "necessary and sufficient will," an agreement can be reached, whether direct or indirect. He added that the ball is now in the US court.
Araghchi emphasized that Iran's nuclear program was completely "peaceful and legitimate," adding Iran was ready to resolve any existing ambiguity about its nuclear activities. He said he would represent Iran in the negotiations and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff would be the US representative.
Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, with six major countries -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States -- in July 2015, accepting restrictions on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. However, the United States withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and reinstated sanctions, prompting Iran to scale back some of its nuclear commitments. Efforts to revive the nuclear deal have not achieved substantial progress.
