US Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, is likely to meet Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Friday to discuss a possible nuclear deal aimed at ending weeks of escalating tensions between the two sides.
The announcement came as Washington and Iran continued to trade warnings and threats of potential US military strikes on Tehran, and Iranian retaliation.
A meeting between the two high-level officials is set to take place in Turkey on February 6, officials said on Tuesday, after Tehran called for a restart of negotiations on a nuclear deal amidst Washington’s warnings of military action in the absence of one.
“The potential meeting had been arranged following interventions by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Oman,” reports quoting official sources confirmed on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump had warned on Monday that “many bad things will happen to Iran” if it fails to reach a deal with the United States. “Right now we’re talking to them; we’re talking to Iran, and if we can work something out, that’d be great. And if we can’t, probably bad things would happen,” he told reporters at the White House.
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The President also refused to share his Iran plans with anyone, especially regarding possible military action, but reiterated that the “tremendous force” –including an aircraft carrier he has dispatched to the Middle East – was arriving in the region soon, despite closed-door discussions going on.
“We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones … and we have talks going on with Iran,” Trump said. “We’ll see how it works out.”
Meanwhile, Iranian officials associated with the Supreme National Security Council have said that they understand an “attack combined with [recent] demonstrations spread with the help of angry people and foreign-sponsored agents is the main goal of enemies to overrun the system in the country”.
They, however, warned that the regime would cripple protests with even harsher measures in case a coordinated US attack and more anti-regime protests were used as tools to overthrow the establishment, adding that the result would be a bloodbath.
In recent anti-government protests, Iran acknowledged that over 3,000 people were killed and thousands more injured, with international human rights groups saying more than 18,000 people were detained.
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