White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff has been planning to hold talks with Iranian officials in Turkey later this week
Iran’s president said on Tuesday he instructed the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the United States, the first clear sign from Tehran it wants to try to negotiate as tensions remain high with Washington after the Mideast country’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month.
The announcement came as a US Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching an American aircraft carrier early Tuesday morning. The Iranian Mission to the UN did not immediately comment on the incident. The US military announced the downing of the drone on Tuesday evening.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff has been planning to hold talks with Iranian officials in Turkey later this week, and the talks are still scheduled despite the drone incident. It was the first direct acknowledgment of the talks by the White House.
“President Trump is always wanting to pursue diplomacy first, but obviously it takes two to tango,” Leavitt said. “You need a willing partner to achieve diplomacy and that’s something that special envoy Witkoff is intent on exploring and discussing.” The shift toward negotiations marked a major turn for reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who had broadly warned Iranians for weeks that the turmoil in his country had gone beyond his control. It also signals that the president received support from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for talks that the 86-year-old cleric previously had dismissed.
Turkey attempting to broker negotiations Turkey has been working behind the scenes to make the talks happen there later this week as US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling in the region. A Turkish official later said the location of talks was uncertain but that Turkey was ready to support the process.
Foreign ministers from Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also been invited to attend the talks, if they happen, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity as they did not have permission to speak to journalists.
But whether Iran and the US can reach an agreement remains to be seen, particularly as US President Donald Trump now has included Iran’s nuclear programme in a list of demands from Tehran in any talks. Trump ordered the bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June.
On Tuesday, Araghchi spoke by phone with his counterparts from Oman, Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait, but did not mention a possible venue.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iranian state TV that the talks are still expected to happen in the next few days but that the details, including where it will take place, is still being discussed. Oman, Turkey, and other regional countries have all offered to host negotiations.
US shoots down drone US Central Command said the drone “aggressively approached” the aircraft carrier on Tuesday, with “unclear intent” and it “continued to fly toward the ship despite deescalatory measures taken by US forces operating in international waters.” The Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an F-35C fighter jet from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was sailing about 805 kilometres from Iran’s southern coast, Central Command spokesman Capt Tim Hawkins said. The incident took place just before sunrise, he told The AP.
In a separate incident later Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed a merchant vessel flying the American flag and carrying an American crew, Hawkins said.
Two boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the ship, Stena Imperative, “at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Hawkins’ statement said.
The destroyer USS McFaul responded and escorted the Stena Imperative with defensive air support, the statement said, adding that the merchant vessel was now sailing safely.
Khamenei adviser speaks on the nuclear issue Late Monday, the pan-Arab satellite channel Al Mayadeen, which is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, aired an interview with Ali Shamkhani, a top Khamenei adviser on security.
He suggested that if the talks happened, they would be indirect at the beginning, and move to direct talks only if a deal appeared to be attainable. Direct talks with the US long have been a highly charged political issue within Iran’s theocracy, with reformists like Pezeshkian pushing for them and hard-liners dismissing them.
The talks would solely focus on nuclear issues, he added.
