(11 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: PART NO USE BY BBC PERSIAN, VOA PERSIAN, MANOTO TV, IRAN INTERNATIONAL
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Muscat, Oman – 11 April 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
"I’m in Muscat, the capital of Oman, where on Saturday the United States will negotiate with Iran over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. The details of these talks remain closely held, but what is known is that Iran has been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels and has a stockpile that the United Nations warned could be enough for it to build several nuclear weapons should it choose to do so. In the lead-up of these talks, we saw (U.S.) President Donald Trump write a letter to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as we’ve seen Iranian officials come back and offer kind of positive comments about the talks that they could succeed, that they can go forward. But looming in the background is Trump’s threat that a military strike against Iran is possible if these talks don’t succeed. So as of right now, the U.S. and Iran have put their trust in Oman to be the mediator and whether or not these tensions in the Middle East that have been escalated by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip go even further will likely depend on what happens at the negotiating table here in Muscat."
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NO USE BY BBC PERSIAN, VOA PERSIAN, MANOTO TV, IRAN INTERNATIONAL
Tehran, Iran – 11 April 2025
2. Wide of Tehran skyline and traffic
3. Wide of traffic
4. Various of protesters marching and chanting
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Muscat, Oman – 11 April 2025
5. Women walking nearby a mosque
STORYLINE:
Once again, some of the highest stakes in Middle East geopolitics will be discussed in this quiet coastal city without skyscrapers.
Here in Muscat, the capital of Oman nestled against the sheer stone heights of the Hajar Mountains, Iran and the United States will meet for talks over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program for the first time since U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term.
No agreement is immediately likely, but the stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for these two nations closing in on half a century of enmity.
Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached.
Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
And at the center is Oman, one of the world’s last sultanates on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
Its unique history, people and proximity to Iran have made it indispensable for the West as it has held discussion after discussion for Iran.
But these latest talks — suddenly announced by Trump in the Oval Office just days earlier — have put Oman firmly into a spotlight it otherwise seeks to avoid.
Oman, home to 5.2 million people across an arid country just larger than Italy, stands out among the Gulf Arab states.
Its oil and gas wealth is marginal by comparison, and its citizens outnumber its population of foreign workers.
Omanis can be found working normal jobs from taxi cabs to offices.
This round of talks is unlike those that came before.
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