By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

As US warships and aircraft have amassed in the region for a potential strike on Iran, the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, suggested that talks could take place imminently.

Saudi and Israeli officials held talks at the Pentagon last week to discuss potential US strikes and concerns over an Iranian counterattack that could lead to growing conflict in the region. Iran has threatened to attack Israel, including Tel Aviv, if a strike is launched by the US. Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel was ready “for every scenario” and warned that anyone who attacks the country would face “unbearable consequences.

Asked on Monday, February 3, about the prospect of a deal, Trump told reporters at the White House that talks were happening. “We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones, the biggest and the best, and we have talks going on with Iran, and we’ll see how it all works out ... if we can work something out, that would be great, and if we can’t, probably bad things would happen.”

Speaking during a visit to the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Araghchi said: “[Iran’s enemies] are talking about diplomacy today, even though Iran has always been ready for this option, provided there is mutual respect and consideration of interests.”

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday that the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, had ordered the start of nuclear talks with the US, as Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to arrive in the region for talks in Israel with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

No date was given for any Iran-US talks, but a spokesperson for Tehran’s foreign ministry said that “several points have been addressed and we are examining and finalising the details of each stage in the diplomatic process, which we hope to conclude in the coming days”.

The US news site Axios, citing US administration officials, said Witkoff and Araghchi would meet on Friday in Istanbul along with representatives of several Arab and Muslim countries to discuss a possible nuclear deal. Reuters reported that delegations would attend from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

The meeting would be the first between the US and Iranian officials since last April, shortly before Israel and later the US struck Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile sites during a 12-day war in June. During the conflict, Iran fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at cities and towns in Israel, many of which were downed by interceptors.

Trump has dispatched a “massive armada” of ships and warplanes to the region in response to Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters that has killed thousands, with activists claiming that more than 30,000 were left dead in a government massacre. They include an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, along with guided missile destroyers and dozens of warplanes capable of delivering strikes against Iran’s leadership, military targets, or its nuclear program.

 

 

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