On July 7th, local time, U.S. President Donald Trump stated at a White House dinner welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that the United States has arranged talks with Iran, with specific dates and times to be announced on the 8th.
U.S. Special Representative for Middle East Affairs, Witkower, mentioned that the Iranian issue meeting is scheduled to take place around next week.
Currently, there is no official response from Iran regarding this matter.
Previously, AXIOS news website reported on July 3rd that U.S. Special Representative for Middle East Affairs, Witkower, plans to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi in Oslo, Norway, next week, to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue. According to two sources familiar with the matter, the final date of the dialogue has not been determined, and neither the U.S. nor Iran has publicly confirmed the meeting.
On June 25th, Trump stated that the United States and Iran would hold talks in the following week and hinted at possibly relaxing sanctions against Iran. However, to date, there has been no public diplomatic contact between the U.S. and Iran. On March 30th, Araghchi said that Iran’s return to negotiations with the U.S. depends on ensuring that the U.S. will not attack Iran during the negotiations again. Given this, he believes that resuming negotiations still requires time.
Since April this year, the U.S. and Iran have held five rounds of indirect negotiations through mediators, with the sixth round originally scheduled for June 15th in Muscat, Oman, but was canceled due to an Israeli large-scale airstrike against Iran on the same day. Following the Israeli strike, Iran launched a counterattack. On June 22nd, U.S. forces bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities. On June 24th, a ceasefire was declared between Israel and Iran. (Cao Jian)