SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.S. and Iran held preliminary talks Friday aimed at avoiding war. Iran wants the talks to focus on its nuclear program. The U.S. wants much more. NPR's Jane Arraf has been following this story and joins us from Amman. Jane, thanks for being with us.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Thank you.
SIMON: What do we know about what happened at the talks?
ARRAF: So this was an indirect meeting in Oman, in the capital Muscat. There was the U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. They were communicating with Iran's foreign minister through Omani officials. Iran described the talks as lengthy and intensive. And the real importance of this was that the meeting took place at all because it's provided some breathing room in what has been a very tense situation in the region. Trump had threatened military strikes. Iran had said, if that happened, it could spark regional war. Here's President Trump speaking to reporters on Air Force One last night.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We, likewise, had very good talks on Iran. Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly. We have to see what that deal is.
ARRAF: He noted there are U.S. warships in the region and said the U.S. was in no rush regarding a deal. So that, too, has diffused some of the considerable tension.
SIMON: And how has Iran responded?
ARRAF: Well, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said, following the six-hour meeting, that both sides wanted another round. He told Al Jazeera television today that there was no date set yet, but he thinks it should be soon. And asked about the prospect of war, he said Iran was ready for both peace and war.
SIMON: The threat of military attack is not the only strategy the U.S. is using, is it?
ARRAF: Totally true. Obviously, that military threat is the biggest one, but this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a Senate committee that the U.S. had engineered the latest financial crisis in Iran, which sparked widespread protests. He says they did it by creating a dollar shortage in the country.
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SCOTT BESSENT: It came to a swift and, I would say, grand culmination in December. When one of the largest banks in Iran went under, the Iranian currency went into free fall. Inflation exploded. And hence, we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.
ARRAF: So that financial crisis left many Iranians unable to afford food, and those protests morphed into anti-regime demonstrations. At least 5,000 people, most of them demonstrators, were believed to have been killed. And, Scott, on Friday, the U.S. levied new sanctions it says are aimed at supporting anti-government protesters. Those sanctions are against companies and people it says they are illegally trading Iranian oil. And the White House has threatened additional tariffs against any country trading with Iran.
SIMON: Jane, President Trump has been clear he wants to see regime change in Iran. Is that a popular idea in the region, near as you can tell?
ARRAF: It is very divided. Israel is very keen. Other countries are terrified of the consequences. I mean, let's face it, Iran is a powerful oil-rich, very complex country, and what they worry about is the chaos that would result if there were an unplanned change of regime. As for these talks, Iran is insisting they focus on its nuclear program. It says that program is for peaceful purposes. Now, the U.S. bombed Iran in December and insists it was developing nuclear weapons, but the U.N. nuclear watchdog says there's no evidence Iran was building a bomb.
SIMON: NPR's Jane Arraf. Thanks so much.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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