Muscat, Oman. Iran’s most senior diplomatic envoy is touring Gulf mediators this week to explore a potential agreement with Washington, as both sides signal cautious willingness to continue negotiations after talks in Oman last week.
Meetings with regional mediators
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.
US military posture and recent strikes
The diplomatic activity follows US President Donald Trump’s deployment of a naval flotilla to the region and his threats of 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.
Dispute over missiles and deal scope
Washington is seeking to broaden any agreement beyond the nuclear file to include curbs on Iran’s ballistic missile programme. Tehran has 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 said the United States “must act independently of foreign pressures, especially Israeli pressures that ignore the interests of the region and even the US.”
Sanctions, enrichment, and uranium stockpile
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.
Washington has demanded Iran surrender its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity. The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslami, said 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.
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