Report: Witkoff may delay Oman trip if Iran refuses face-to-face meet; willing to visit Tehran if invited

US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff may reportedly hold off on traveling to Oman on Saturday if Iran refuses to hold direct talks with him in Muscat.

US President Donald Trump announced Monday that his administration would hold direct talks with Iran on the latter’s nuclear program. Tehran subsequently confirmed the talks but has insisted that they’d be indirect — in an apparent effort to first determine that Washington is serious about making the concessions that the Islamic Republic would like to see before legitimizing the administration with face-to-face talks.

For their part, Trump officials have continued to insist that the negotiations will be direct, having argued that indirect talks aren’t as effective.

“We won’t be played for fools,” a Trump administration official tells The Washington Post, arguing that what is needed to break through the deep mistrust on both sides is a “full-fledged discussion” and a “meeting of minds.”

Witkoff would even be willing to travel to Tehran if invited, two administration officials tell the Post.

One of the officials speculated that Trump’s decision to announce the talks alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Monday was to keep the premier in check and preempt Israeli criticism.

Trump is more eager to engage in diplomacy than bombing, the officials tell the Post.