Following President Donald Trump issuing stern threats to Iran last week, the government of Tehran has blinked and will now enter negotiations with the United States in Oman on Saturday. The recent spat was sparked off by Trump’s insistence that Iran sign a new nuclear non-proliferation deal, part of the President’s greater denuclearization agenda.
Trump was unhappy with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, withdrew from it during his first term in office, and has since been seeking to enact a new agreement. The meeting this week, which will be between the Iranian foreign minister and the President’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will mark the beginning of negotiating a new agreement aimed at ensuring Iran does not become armed with nuclear weapons.
“Iran and the United States will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect high-level talks,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post Monday evening. “It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court.”
Iran and the United States will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect high-level talks.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 7, 2025
It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America's court.
Trump confirmed these negotiations as well, although he described these talks using the term ‘direct’ instead of ‘indirect’, which the Iranian official used. Iran is perhaps entering these negotiations with a lack of enthusiasm, although the decision to negotiate has been taken, nevertheless.
“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 at the White House on Monday, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran will engage in dialogue with Washington, assuming it’s on equal terms and that the U.S. demonstrates a genuine commitment to negotiations. He said Iran will not agree to talks at any cost, particularly not by being placed under pressure or by being put into demeaning conditions.
Trump had used his ‘bad cop’ strategy last week when he threatened to bomb Iran if they don’t enter negotiations.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC on March 30. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before … There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
Iran initially responded with hostilities of its own. On March 30 it was reported that the Islamic nation’s missiles are loaded onto launchers and are ready for use, followed by a direct threat to the U.S. and its allies.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged direct negotiations for a new nuclear deal. Iran however rejected the proposal due to a breakdown in trust stemming from Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and his subsequent ‘maximum pressure’ policy, characterized by stiff financial sanctions.
Notably, this 2015 ‘Iran nuclear deal’ involved President Barack Obama shipping $400 million in cash on pallets to Tehran.
“No other transaction in U.S. history has involved a planeload of bills, say diplomatic historians, raising questions about payment timed to help free prisoners,” the Times of Israel said in 2016.
“Iran state TV announced an $80 million bounty for President Trump’s head on Sunday following the targeting strike of Qassam Soleimani despite the fact the nation is suffering under crippling sanctions,” Jamie White said in an article on Infowars in 2020. “Given the crushing U.S. economic sanctions bearing down on Iran, how is the Islamic nation able to offer such a large reward for Trump’s assassination? The answer may lie in the $1.7 billion payment former President Obama sent to Iran, including $400 million delivered on pallets in a C-130 as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) in 2015. The ‘compromise’ payment was made as part of the $150 billion sanction relief to Iran for the nuclear deal despite the fact both Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry outright admitted some of that money would be used to fund terrorism.”