Trump unlikely to drag US into ‘catastrophic war’ with Iran, Araghchi says

Iran’s foreign minister has questioned whether US President Donald Trump would risk igniting a regional war with Iran, days before talks between the two sides are due to take place in Oman.

Recent exchanges between Tehran and Washington were “a genuine attempt to clarify positions,” and not merely symbolic, said Abbas Araghchi in an opinion piece published Tuesday in The Washington Post.

“It is hard to imagine President Trump wanting to become another US president mired in a catastrophic war in the Middle East — a conflict that would quickly extend across the region and cost exponentially more than the trillions of taxpayer dollars that his predecessors burned in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Araghchi wrote.

He confirmed that Iran remains open to indirect negotiations and said that a diplomatic path is still possible. “Our proposal for indirect negotiations remains on the table. We believe that if there is true will, there is always a way forward,” he added.

The talks, scheduled for Saturday in Oman, come amid lingering distrust between the two sides and competing expectations over what a potential agreement might require.