Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s hours-long talks with Iran in Oman ended Friday with Tehran refusing to budge on nuclear enrichment.
The US responded by immediately ratcheting up sanctions to deliver economic pain to Iran and flexing its military might by flying fighter jets in the Arabian Sea above the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.
President Trump has been threatening a military bombardment of Iran for weeks after the brutal murder of thousands of anti-regime protesters. The talks on Friday were a chance for diplomacy, but Iran didn’t want to address its ballistic missile stockpile and the regime’s brutality on protesters.
“Our talks are focused solely on the nuclear issue, and we are not engaging with the Americans on any other subject,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iran’s Press TV.
Still, Araghchi played off the talks as “a good start’ to continued negotiations — but the White House has not said whether it is interested in drawing out discussions as an armada of at least 10 naval warships surround Iran.
Iran refused to end nuclear enrichment, which the US demanded.
Araghchi further demanded that Trump dial down the military pressure if he wants the US to participate in the Iran-proposed continued discussions, saying they should “take place in a calm environment, free from tension and threats.”
“We raised this point clearly today as well, and we expect it to be observed so that the continuation of the talks will be possible,” he told Press TV.
Also participating in the talks was Cmdr. Brad Cooper, who heads the US Central Command. Donning his full dress uniform, Cooper was a visual reminder of the threat of US military operations in the Middle East.
The talks on Friday were briefly canceled on Thursday after Iran made demands to change the location of the meeting from Turkey to Oman, and refused to discuss anything other than Iran’s nuclear program.
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But American officials ultimately accepted the change of venue after unnamed Arab world leaders urged the administration to move forward with the talks.
The lack of progress from the meeting likely did not surprise Washington, as a senior US official on Thursday told Axios they doubted much would come from the engagement.
“They asked us to hold the meeting and to listen to what the Iranians have to say. We told the Arabs that we would hold the meeting if they insist. But we are very skeptical about the chances of success,” the senior US official said.
The US has not issued a readout of the meeting or talked publicly of the possibility for future discussions. The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
However, the State Department on Friday issued new sanctions targeting Iran’s illicit oil trades after Iran refused to make any relevant concessions in talks with the American negotiators.
The US is sanctioning “15 entities, two individuals and 14 shadow fleet vessels connected to the illicit trade” of Iranian petroleum that have “generated revenue that the regime uses to conduct its malign activities,” the State Department said in a statement.
“Instead of investing in the welfare of its own people and crumbling infrastructure, the Iranian regime continues to fund destabilizing activities around the world and step up its repression inside Iran,” the State Department said.
It comes after massive protests broke out in Iran over its economic failures, thanks to Tehran’s focus on supporting terror networks and its nuclear program, which sparked sanctions that stressed the economy.
“The President is committed to driving down the Iranian regime’s illicit oil and petrochemical exports under the Administration’s maximum pressure campaign,” the State Department said.
