Rubio announces direct US-Iran conversations

Direct American-Iranian conversations will start on Saturday in Oman, and the United States will be represented by a special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff-said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, during the meeting of the office of President Donald Trump.

“We hope that this will lead to a room. We presented the situation very clearly: Iran can never have nuclear weapons and I think that this has led to the (agreement) of this meeting,” Rubio announced.

On Tuesday, the Iranian state media reported that Iranian-American talks will not be direct, and the mediator in contacts between the parties is to be the foreign minister of Oman Badr al-Busaidi. Iran is to be represented by Foreign Minister Abbas Aragczi.

Oman maintains good relations with both the US and Iran and has been meditating in the exchange of messages between these countries for years.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump withdrew the US from a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The 2015 agreement was aimed at limiting the Iranian Uranus enrichment program to prevent this country from producing nuclear weapons in exchange for softening international sanctions.

Since then, Iran has significantly exceeded the restrictions provided by this agreement in the matter of enriching uranium. Western powers accuse Tehran of secretly striving to build a nuclear bomb. The Iranian authorities claim that their nuclear program serves only civil purposes. (PAP)

Fit/ AP/

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