Iran peace talks open as Tehran delegation lands, Vance flying in

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

An Iranian negotiating team touched down in Muscat on Saturday for indirect U.S. talks aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program.

Vice President JD Vance departed Andrews Air Force Base minutes later, senior aides confirmed, putting both capitals’ envoys in Oman within hours of each other for the first face-to-face encounter since 2023.

The White House called the meeting “exploratory” but said President Donald Trump ordered his deputy to “test whether Iran will accept verifiable limits” after months of sanctions that have halved Iranian oil exports. Tehran’s foreign ministry issued an almost identical statement, calling talks “a chance to defend our peaceful nuclear rights while securing economic relief.”

State television in Tehran showed Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi leading a 12-member delegation off a state-owned Iran Air jet shortly after dawn. Oman, which brokered the 2015 nuclear accord and kept open back-channels when Washington quit it five years ago, imposed a sweeping security cordon around the Al-Bustan palace complex where closed sessions are scheduled to start Sunday morning.

Two Omani officials told reporters the format remains “proximity talks,” meaning Iranian and American envoys will occupy separate rooms while Omani mediators shuttle written proposals. “No direct photographs, no joint statements,” one official said, adding that the schedule runs through Tuesday “if the atmosphere stays constructive.”

Vance’s plane carried what aides described as “a narrow mandate” focused on uranium enrichment, not regional militias or missile stockpiles. “If Iran enrichment goes back below 5 percent and stays there, we can discuss sanctions relief,” a senior administration official told reporters aboard Air Force Two, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said further meetings could follow, but only after “concrete, verifiable steps.”

Iranian diplomats countered that Washington must first free up $10 billion in frozen oil revenue held in South Korean and Iraqi banks. “We will not unilaterally move first,” Araghchi told Iranian state radio before take-off. He repeated Tehran’s long-standing position that stockpiles enriched to 60 percent are for medical isotopes and can be diluted “once we see money flowing.”

European capitals watched nervously. France, Germany and the United Kingdom co-signed the original 2015 deal and still back it, but Trump abandoned the accord in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions that now target Iranian oil, banks and metals. A joint statement from the three European foreign ministries welcomed “any step that reduces enrichment” but warned that a narrower U.S. agreement “cannot replace the painstaking, multilateral arrangements” of the original text.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a short video statement urging Washington to “hold firm” and link any sanctions relief to the dismantling of centrifuges. “Half-measures will leave Iran on the nuclear threshold,” he said. Israeli intelligence officials traveled separately to Muscat to brief Vance’s team, according to an Israeli diplomat who asked not to be named.

Oil markets reacted immediately. Brent crude slid 2.4 percent to $69.80 a barrel after the Iranian arrival was confirmed, erasing a risk premium that had built up over Israeli threats to attack Iranian facilities. Analysts at ClearView Energy Partners wrote that even limited sanctions waivers could push an extra 500,000 barrels a day onto the market within months, trimming forecast prices by $6.

Hard-liners in both capitals attacked the talks. Forty-seven Republican lawmakers released a letter warning Trump against “another weak Obama-style bargain,” while a crowd of 200 Basij militiamen protested outside the foreign ministry in Tehran, burning American flags. “The enemy cannot be trusted,” speaker Javad Karimi told the crowd, though police kept demonstrators away from Mehrabad airport.

Last-minute logistics almost derailed the encounter. Washington demanded Iran swap its aging Iran Air 747 for a chartered Omani plane to avoid U.S. sanctions that bar Iranian aircraft from most airspace. Tehran refused, citing “national dignity,” and Muscat finally granted a one-time overflight waiver, flight-tracking data showed. The aircraft landed after a 2-hour, 40-minute journey that skirted Saudi and Emirati radar corridors.

Background

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action capped Iran’s enrichment at 3.67 percent and shipped out 98 percent of its enriched uranium in return for lifting U.N., U.S. and EU sanctions. Trump quit the accord in May 2018, saying it failed to address missiles or regional proxies, and imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions that cut Iranian oil exports from 2.5 million barrels a day to under 400,000 by 2020.

Iran responded by breaching enrichment limits step by step. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors reported this month that Tehran now holds 182 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, close to the 90 percent considered weapons grade. Agency cameras remain installed at Iranian facilities but have been switched off since 2022, leaving inspectors with only monthly physical visits to verify stockpiles.

What’s Next

Negotiators must decide by Monday evening whether to issue a brief joint text or extend talks into a second round. Oman has reserved beach-front villas for both teams through Wednesday, hotel staff confirmed, but U.S. officials said Vance’s schedule remains “fluid” and depends on Iranian willingness to accept IAEA snap inspections that were part of the original 2015 deal.

A senior Gulf diplomat predicted that even limited sanctions relief could head off Israeli strikes before the U.S. election cycle intensifies. “Nobody wants a war this summer,” the diplomat said. “But the window is narrow — if enrichment keeps rising, bombs could replace bargaining chips by autumn.”