Vehicles drive by the Azadi (Freedom) monument in Tehran, Iran (AP Photo)
DUBAI: The next round of talks between the United States and Iran will be Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s foreign minister said Sunday, shortly after Tehran’s top diplomat said he expected to meet U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff then. Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on social media he was pleased to confirm the development, “with a positive push to go the extra mile towards finalizing the deal.” Oman previously hosted the indirect talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and facilitated the latest round in Geneva last week. There was no immediate comment from the White House. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had told CBS in an interview aired Sunday that a “good chance” remained for a diplomatic solution on the nuclear issue, adding it was the only matter being discussed. The Trump administration has been pushing for concessions from its longtime adversary and has built up the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East in decades. President Donald Trump warned on Friday that limited strikes against Iran are possible, even as Araghchi at the time said Tehran expected to have a proposed deal ready in the next few days. Araghchi told CBS that Iran was still working on the draft proposal. He added that Iran has the right to enrich uranium. On Friday, he said his U.S. counterparts had not asked for zero enrichment as part of the latest round of talks, which is not what U.S. officials have said publicly. Both Iran and the U.S. have signaled they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran’s nuclear program fail. Minutes after Oman’s confirmation of talks, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on social media that “recent negotiations involved the exchange of practical proposals and yielded encouraging signals. However, we continue to closely monitor U.S. actions and have made all necessary preparations for any potential scenario.” The U.S. has said Iran cannot have nuclear weapons or the capacity to build them and that it cannot enrich uranium. Tehran has long insisted that any negotiations should only focus on its nuclear program, and that it hasn’t been enriching uranium since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June. Although Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, the U.S. and others suspect it is aimed at eventually developing weapons. Talks were deadlocked for years after Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Since then, Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups. New protests in Iran Confirmation of new talks came as new anti-government protests began in Iran, according to witnesses, as university students in Tehran and another city demonstrated around memorials for thousands of people killed in a crackdown on previous nationwide demonstrations about six weeks ago. Iran’s state news agency said students protested at five universities in the capital, Tehran, and one in the city of Mashhad on Sunday. The scattered protests erupted Saturday at universities following 40-day memorials for people killed in January during anti-government rallies. Iran’s government has not commented on the latest protests. Many Iranians have held ceremonies marking the traditional 40-day mourning period in the past week. Most of the protesters are believed to have been killed around Jan. 8 and 9, according to activists tracking the situation. Iranians across the country are still reeling with shock, grief and fear after the earlier protests were crushed by the deadliest crackdown ever seen under the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands are believed to have been arrested. Although the crackdown tamped down the largest protests, smaller ones are still occurring, according to protesters and to videos shared on social media. During the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah and brought the Islamic Republic to power, 40-day memorials for slain protesters often turned into rallies that security forces tried to crush, causing new deaths. Those were then marked 40 days later, with new protests. Posts on social media Saturday and Sunday have alleged that security forces tried to restrict people from attending some 40-day ceremonies. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says at least 7,015 people were killed in the previous protests and crackdown, including 214 government forces. The group has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists there to verify deaths. The death toll continues to rise as the group crosschecks information despite disrupted communication with those inside the Islamic Republic. Iran’s government offered its only death toll from the previous protests on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, given authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.
