US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff (L) and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. (AFP)
US envoy Steve Witkoff (L) and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. (AFP)
Witkoff, Araghchi to meet on Friday to discuss possible nuclear deal, US official says
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi plan to meet on Friday in Istanbul to discuss a possible nuclear deal and other issues, a US official said on Monday.
“The president’s been calling for them to make a deal. The meeting is to hear what they have to say,” the official said.
A senior Iranian official also told Reuters that Araghchi and Witkoff would meet in Istanbul on Friday.
Several regional countries are expected to attend the US-Iran meeting on Friday, Reuters reported, citing a senior regional diplomat.
Friday’s planned meeting was first reported by Axios.
Tensions are running high amid a military buildup by the US Navy near Iran, following a violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during the crackdown, has since demanded Tehran make nuclear concessions and sent a flotilla to its coast. He said last week Iran was “seriously talking,” while Tehran’s top security official Ali Larijani said arrangements for negotiations were under way.
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had demanded three preconditions for resumption of talks: Zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and ending its support for regional proxies.
Iran has long rejected all three demands as unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers see the ballistic missile program, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.
Witkoff is expected to visit Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s military chief, two senior Israeli officials said separately on Monday.
