Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s pointman for negotiations across the globe, briefly spoke directly with Iranian leaders Saturday, as the two countries said negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program would continue next week.
Saturday’s brief face-to-face encounter between Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was the first known direct contact between the U.S. and Iran since Trump took office in January. The session is the start of a high-stakes process that could see Trump and Iran shelve ratcheting up tensions over Iran’s nuclear program — or risk wider regional war should the talks fail.
The pair spoke for two and a half hours in what are known as indirect talks, during which Oman acted as a mediator and shuttled between the parties.
The White House in a statement reiterated comments Witkoff had delivered to NBC News earlier in the afternoon that “the discussions were very positive and constructive,” and noted that Witkoff’s “direct communication” with Araghchi “was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.”
The statement also confirmed that both sides had agreed to resume talks next Saturday.
In a post to his Telegram account shortly after talks concluded, Araghchi wrote in Farsi that it was “worthy to note” that the two officials “spoke for a few minutes” in the presence of the Omani foreign minister. An English-language X post made no mention of the short face-to-face.
Speaking to Iranian state TV, Araghchi said that there were four back-and-forths with the Omani foreign minister passing along the officials’ views. The talks were “constructive,” Araghchi said, adding that the “atmosphere was respectful and calm.”
Trump last month sent a letter to Iran setting a 60-day deadline to make progress on talks over its nuclear program or face potential military retaliation.
“I want them not to have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday.
The talks come as Iran is significantly weakened from Israel’s onslaught against its main proxy groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, and from direct Israeli attacks on Iranian military facilities late last year. Trump, Witkoff and others on his team see the current moment as an opportunity to strike a deal, while close ally Israel and some Republican hawks think it could be a window to deal a crippling military blow to Iran’s program.
America has significantly built up forces in the Middle East recently, sending several B-2 stealth bombers to the Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, which could be used in a strike on Iran’s underground military facilities.
The Trump administration has increased sanctions on Iran, including on Friday targeting its oil trading networks and a storage facility in China.
Trump administration officials have called for full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, but have hinted they could allow Tehran’s program to exist in some form. Witkoff said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal the administration’s red line is “weaponization of [Iran’s] nuclear capability” and is open to finding “other ways to compromise between the two countries” on the question of Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump has been casting around for opinions on Iranian-U.S. relations. Comedian Bill Maher, who recently dined with the president, said on his show on Friday that Trump had asked the HBO host about negotiations.
“He was asking me about the nuclear situation in Iran in a very genuine way,” Maher told his audience.
Witkoff has also said that any deal would require verification measures to monitor Iran’s nuclear work, in a formulation that is similar to the nuclear deal reached under the Obama administration known as the JCPOA.
Trump pulled out of that 2015 nuclear deal between six world powers and Iran during his first term, which was designed to curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at denying Iran a weapon. But Iran has since expanded its nuclear work and missile production.
Ahead of the Saturday negotiations, the U.S. side had insisted that the session would be direct, while Iran said they would be indirect, with Oman as a mediator.
“These will be direct talks with the Iranians and I want to make that very clear,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing on Friday, reiterating the warning that “you can agree to President Trump’s demand or there will be hell to pay.”
Iranian officials had signaled before Saturday that should the first round go well, Araghchi could soon meet with Witkoff directly.