ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, on Tuesday voiced concerns about the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, and reports that both sides were ramping up military capabilities in the region.
“We’re obviously concerned by the growing tensions in the [Persian] Gulf, the growing tensions between the US and Iran,” Dujarric told Rudaw’s Sinan Tuncdemir during a press briefing.
In recent days, media outlets have reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei placed his country’s military on high alert and that Tehran has warned neighboring countries hosting US military bases not to support any potential American strikes on Iranian targets.
The development comes as the US has also been beefing up its military presence in the region, positioning forces within operational range from Iran.
Washington recently deployed the USS Carl Vinson and USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike groups to the Middle East, along with up to six B-2 stealth bombers stationed at Diego Garcia - a US-British military base in the Indian Ocean.
Additional fighter jets and surveillance aircraft have also been moved to the region, alongside Patriot missile defense batteries to bolster air defenses.
Answering Rudaw on Tuesday, the UN spokesperson further expressed optimism that Tehran and Washington would be engaging “indirectly” in coming days to de-escalate tensions.
“We reacted positively to the news that there is a possibility for indirect talks, through third party, we hope that that opportunity, using another country as an intermediary, would be used to lower tensions,” Dujarric said.
The UN official’s remarks came after Iran on Tuesday rejected claims of direct engagement with the US over its nuclear program, just hours after US President Donald Trump announced that Tehran and Washington would hold direct talks.
In a statement he posted on X early on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “Iran and the United States will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect high-level talks.”
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency on the same day cited Araghchi as confirming that he and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff will lead their respective delegations to hold “indirect talks” in Oman on Saturday, April 12.
Later in the day, the spokesperson for the US State Department, Tammy Bruce, confirmed to Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda reports that Witkoff would be leading the American negotiations team in Oman.
“The Omanis are hosting, Special Envoy Witkoff will be there, I do not know about the environment and how it will be arranged. It is a meeting and how the participants decide to frame that meeting is completely up to them,” Bruce said.
US President Trump had hours prior, on Monday, underscored that “direct talks” between Washington and Tehran had already begun.
"We're having direct talks with Iran, and they have started," Trump told reporters at the White House, stressing that the US and Israel prefer a diplomatic solution over military confrontation.
However, Trump did not rule out military action, emphasizing that "if the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger," and stressing that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
In a rare op-ed he published in the Washington post, Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi on Tuesday responded stating that “under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.”
He said that Tehran views the recent exchanges with Washington as “representing a genuine attempt to clarify positions and open a window toward diplomacy,” and while “Iran prefers diplomacy, it knows how to defend itself.”
Araghchi added that “there can be no military option, let alone a military solution” to the crisis further rejecting what he says are US attempts “to impose its will through pressure.”
Interestingly, the Iranian foreign minister said that the consecutive “US administrations and congressional impediments” have “kept American enterprises away from the trillion-dollar opportunity” that access to the Iranian economy represents.
