Quotes
We have just completed one of the most professional rounds of talks ... We firmly stated Iran's position ... The fact that we are now on a reasonable path, in my view, is itself a sign of progress,
The talks continue to be constructive – we made further progress, but there is still work to be done. Both sides agreed to meet again in the near future. We are grateful to our Omani partners for their continued facilitation,
The negotiations are too complicated to be resolved in two or three meetings,
Iranian Foreign Minister and lead negotiator Abbas Araghchi said, as the Oman-mediated talks concluded And I think, by the way, that much of the Israeli defence establishment, unlike at the political level, would be quite happy if they can reach a deal,
The Iranians are sophisticated negotiators. They have a good command of English and a deep knowledge of the nuclear subject,
They [the negotiators] inevitably get a mandate, which comes from the Supreme Leader. But they don’t always know exactly what it is that the Supreme Leader wants, and he might not have decided until he sees the full agreement and has weighed up the politics in Iran,
It always reminds me of the Ginger Rogers line about Fred Astaire, she had to do everything he had to do, but backwards and in high heels,
We hope to clarify the remaining issues in the coming days, to allow us to proceed towards the common goal of reaching a sustainable and honourable agreement,
foreign minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi said Iran has threatened that if that happens, it would basically withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. If Iran indeed delivers on the threat of withdrawing from the NPT and kicking out the UN inspectors, that’s when there will be justification for military action,
He’s afraid of Trump in a way that he never was of Biden, because he knew that Biden was a true friend. It came from his insides, and he could put a little bit of pressure on Israel, but he would never turn against it. You don’t know that with Trump; he’s mercurial, and so he’s much more concerned and careful with how he plays it,
My take is that these are basically negotiation tactics on both sides. They’re drawing a very hard line in the sand, and they’re going to bluff each other and test each other,
That’s always at the heart of the issue for various reasons,
Zero enrichment has a 22-year unblemished track record of failure,
On the Iranian side, there’s been a wall-to-wall consensus on this,
The beauty of Oman doing this is that the two sides can come out, and the Iranian foreign minister can say, ‘I had a five-minute chat with Witkoff.’ You know, upon leaving the meeting, you know, we bumped into each other and had a five-minute sort of courtesy meeting. And then, the Americans can say ‘Iran and US had a 45-minute direct conversation’, and no one can prove it one way or another,
says Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at Crisis Group He is very serious, very smart, and a graduate, incidentally, of the University of Kent,
says Sir Simon Gass, the former British diplomat who headed the UK delegation in those talks If you look at why Israel hasn’t attacked the Iranian nuclear programme at any point in the last 30 years, despite the so-called Begin doctrine, which says that Israel will prevent any hostile country in the region from achieving a nuclear weapon by all means, I think one of the two primary reasons was the US,
I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal,
The question I do not have an answer to is whether this is his opening salvo or it is a red line for the US. If it’s an opening salvo, then as soon as you get over the maximum demand, there’s so many technical solutions that would allow both sides to get most of what they want. But if it is a real red line for the US, then these negotiations will collapse very soon,
I hope that in the next one or two meetings we can reach solutions that will allow the negotiations to progress. With Oman’s solutions to remove obstacles, there is a possibility of progress, but the negotiations are too complex to be resolved in one or two meetings.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said late on Friday
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