US, Iran in direct talks over nuclear programme, Trump says

WASHINGTON (Reuters): President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States and Iran were beginning direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a surprise announcement after Iranian officials had appeared to rebuff US calls for such negotiations.

Iran had pushed back against Trump’s demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear programme or be bombed, though it had initially left the door open to indirect discussions.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during talks with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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“And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable,” Trump said. He did not elaborate.

Warnings by Trump of military action against Iran had jangled already tense nerves across the Middle East after open warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, military strikes on Yemen, a change of leadership in Syria and Israeli-Iranian exchanges of fire.

Trump has said he would prefer a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme to a military confrontation and he said on March 7 he had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks. Iranian officials said at the time that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations.

During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran’s disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump also reimposed sweeping US sanctions.

Since then, Iran has far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.

Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy programme.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes.