WASHINGTON
\nUS Special Envoy Steve Witkoff plans to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on Sunday and discuss Iran\u2019s response to a recent American proposal for a nuclear deal, a US official said late on Wednesday.
\nIran said on Monday it will soon hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the United States in response to a US offer that Tehran deems \u201cunacceptable,\u201d while US President Donald Trump said talks would continue.
\nTrump told a podcast on Monday he was less confident that Iran will agree to stop uranium enrichment in a nuclear deal with Washington.
\nThe US president has been seeking a new nuclear deal to place limits on Iran\u2019s disputed uranium enrichment activities and has threatened the Islamic Republic with bombing if no agreement is reached.
\nIran has long said it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons and is only interested in atomic power generation and other peaceful projects.
\nDuring his first White House term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed limits on Tehran\u2019s uranium enrichment drive in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
\nUneasy relations between Iran and the US go back decades. Tehran says Washington has interfered in its affairs, citing events ranging from a 1953 coup against a prime minister to the 2020 killing of its military commander in a US drone strike.
\nWashington cites Iran\u2019s backing of militant groups in the Middle East, Lebanon and Yemen to say that Iran poses a threat to US ally Israel and Washington\u2019s interests in the region.
\nThe militant groups describe themselves as the \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d to Israeli and US influence in the Middle East.
\nTrump said on Wednesday US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because \u201cit could be a dangerous place.\u201d
\nThe decision by the US to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff plans to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on Sunday and discuss Iran\u2019s response to a recent American proposal for a nuclear deal, a US official said late on Wednesday. Iran said on Monday it will soon hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-483905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n