Iran’s president said Tuesday that he had instructed the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and equitable negotiations” with the United States, the first explicit confirmation from Tehran that it wants to try to negotiate as tensions remain high with Washington after the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month.

The announcement marked a major turn for reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who broadly had 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 had previously dismissed.

Turkey had been working behind the scenes to make the talks happen there later this week as US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling in the region.

The priority of these talks will be to avoid any conflict and de-escalate tensions between the two sides, a regional official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the countries invited to the talks at the foreign ministers’ level included Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

The person said the format of the meetings remained unclear, but that the “main meeting” would be on Friday and that it was important to start dialogue between the parties to avoid further escalation.

On Tuesday, a senior United Arab Emirates official, presidential adviser Anwar Gargash, stressed that Iran needs to reach a nuclear deal with Washington in order to “rebuild their relationship with the United States.”

“I think that the region has gone through various calamitous confrontations,” he said during the World Governments Summit in Dubai. “I don’t think we need another one, but I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations leading to understandings that we don’t have these issues every other day.”

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 program in a list of demands from Tehran in any talks.

Trump........

© The Times of Israel