U.S. envoy plans to meet Iran's foreign minister on Sunday, Witkoff said

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Iran’s foreign minister in Oman on Sunday as Tehran prepares a counter-offer to Washington’s stalled nuclear proposal, deepening uncertainty over the region’s security.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Muscat, Oman, on Sunday to discuss Tehran’s forthcoming reply to Washington’s latest nuclear proposal, a U.S. official said late Wednesday.

Tehran announced on Monday that it would soon present its own counter-offer, calling the American plan “unacceptable”, while President Donald Trump insisted that negotiations would continue.

Speaking on a podcast the same day, Trump admitted he was now less confident that Iran would agree to halt uranium enrichment under any future deal.

The president is pursuing a new agreement to curb Iran’s contested enrichment programme and has threatened military action if talks fail. Tehran, however, maintains it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and seeks atomic energy only for civilian purposes.

During his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 accord that limited Iran’s enrichment in return for sanctions relief, reigniting long-standing tensions between the two countries. Tehran accuses Washington of decades of interference, from the 1953 coup against its prime minister to the 2020 drone strike that killed a senior Iranian commander.

Washington counters that Iran’s support for groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis threatens Israel and U.S. interests. These organisations, styling themselves the “Axis of Resistance”, oppose Israeli and American influence in the region.

On Wednesday, Trump said some U.S. personnel were being redeployed from the Middle East because “it could be a dangerous place”. The move comes as nuclear talks stall and U.S. intelligence suggests Israel is preparing potential strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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