MUSCAT: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi prepared for fresh nuclear talks with the United States in Oman on Friday after apparent progress in previous rounds.
Araghchi flew into Muscat ahead of Saturday’s meeting with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, their third encounter in as many weeks.
Araghchi will lead Iran’s delegation of diplomats and technical experts in indirect discussions with the US side, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X.
Iran’s top diplomat was a negotiator of the landmark nuclear accord abandoned by Trump during his first term in 2018.
Araghchi refused to discuss the talks as he signed copies of an Arabic translation of his book, “The Power of Negotiation” at a book fair in Muscat on Friday.
The latest round will include expert-level talks on Iran’s nuclear program, with Michael Anton, who serves as the State Department’s head of policy planning, leading the technical discussions on the US side, the department said.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will head the Iranian technical team.
Baqaei posted that Iran’s delegation is “resolved to secure our nation’s legitimate and lawful right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while taking reasonable steps to demonstrate that our program is entirely peaceful.”
“Termination of unlawful and inhumane sanctions in an objective and speedy manner is a priority that we seek to achieve,” he added.
According to Baqaei, the dialogue will again be mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi — who appeared with Araghchi at the book signing — on Saturday morning.
The meeting follows two earlier rounds of Omani-mediated negotiations in Muscat and Rome starting on April 12.
Since his return to office in January, Trump has reimposed sweeping sanctions under his policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran.
In March, he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for talks but warning of possible military action if they failed to produce a deal.
Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons — an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian purposes.
Baqaei earlier Friday said “progress in the negotiations requires the demonstration of goodwill, seriousness, and realism by the other side.”
Iran will treat Saturday’s talks seriously, Araghchi said in a recent interview, “and if the other party also enters seriously, there is potential for progress.”
In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal signed three years earlier between Tehran and major world powers. The agreement eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
After Trump’s pullout, Tehran complied with the agreement for a year before scaling back its compliance.
Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit in the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.
In an interview published by Time Magazine on Friday, Trump said the United States will “lead the pack” in attacking Iran if nuclear talks do not lead to a new deal.
But he expressed hope that an agreement could be reached and said he would be willing to meet Khamenei.
Iran FM Araghchi in Oman ahead of nuclear talks with US
https://arab.news/jnmch
Iran FM Araghchi in Oman ahead of nuclear talks with US
- Abbas Araghchi will be leading a diplomatic and technical-expert delegation for indirect discussions with the US side
- President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will represent the United States in the talks
Israel Supreme Court freezes foreign aid organizations Gaza ban
- The decision theoretically allows the NGOs to continue working in Gaza and the West Bank until the court issues a final ruling
- The court said in its ruling that there existed a “genuine legal dispute” due to the foreign NGOs’ responsibilities
JERUSALEM: Israel’s Supreme Court decided in a ruling published on Friday to freeze a government ban on 37 foreign NGOs working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank pending a final decision.
“Without taking any position, a temporary interim order is hereby issued,” the court said in a ruling responding to a petition from more than a dozen NGOs, seeking to reverse the ban after Israel’s government revoked their status in Israel.
The decision theoretically allows the NGOs to continue working in Gaza and the West Bank until the court issues a final ruling, though aid groups expressed uncertainty as to how the freeze would be implemented.
The organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE were notified on December 30, 2025 that their Israeli registrations had expired and that they had 60 days to renew them by providing lists of their Palestinian staff.
If they failed to do so, they would have to cease operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, from March 1.
The NGOs petitioned the Supreme Court via an umbrella organization, AIDA, after their charity registration in Israel was revoked at the end of a year-long battle during which the NGOs had refused to provide lists of their Palestinian employees to Israeli authorities.
The court said in its ruling that there existed a “genuine legal dispute” due to the foreign NGOs’ responsibilities to their employees’ privacy under European law.
“We are still waiting to see how the injunction will be interpreted by the state and whether or not this will mean an increase in our ability to operate,” Athena Rayburn, AIDA director, told AFP, calling it “a step in the right direction.”
- ‘Breathing room’ -
Yotam Ben-Hillel, a lawyer who represented the NGOs in court, welcomed the injunction, but told AFP that “we still don’t know how it will play out.”
“Today, the High Court of Justice has given the residents of Gaza and the West Bank some breathing room,” he said.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and strictly controls all entries to and exits from Gaza.
Craig Kenzie, a project coordinator for MSF in Gaza, told AFP that the organization’s 28 foreign staff left the Palestinian territory on Thursday and would not be able to return unless the ban was reversed.
“It’s a positive step, but it’s very light on the details so it’s not clear what that results in in terms of getting supplies and foreign staff inside,” he said.
The organization’s supplies are running low because none have been allowed in since the end of 2025, he said, but added 1,200 Palestinian staff would be seeing to day-to-day operations, which include clean water provision, surgeries, and maternity health.
He said that though commercial cargo has entered Gaza, the goods they bring in are unaffordable for many Gazans left destitute by the war, and that as far as he was aware no other deregistered NGO has been able to get supplies in in recent months.
