Iran and US envoys hold 1st negotiation over Tehran's nuclear program, and talk face-to-face

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Iran and the United States will hold more negotiations next week over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, Iranian state television reported Saturday at the end of the first round of talks between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Iran's state-run broadcaster revealed that U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “briefly spoke" together — the first time the two nations have done that since the Obama administration.

Tehran’s declaration that the two sides spoke face-to-face — even if briefly — suggests the negotiations went well even to Iranian state TV, which long has been controlled by hard-liners.

In a statement released Saturday afternoon, the White House described the discussions as “very positive and constructive,” while conceding the issues that need to be resolved “are very complicated.”

“Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,” the White House said.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday while flying to Miami for a UFC event that the talks are “going okay.”

“I can’t tell you because nothing matters until you get it done so I don’t like talking about it but it’s going ok. The Iran situation is going pretty good, I think," he said.

The next round of talks will take place Saturday, April 19, according to the Iranian and American statements.

This first round of talks began at around 3:30 p.m. local. The two sides spoke for over two hours at a location in the outskirts of Muscat, Oman's capital, ending the talks around 5:50 p.m. local time. The convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff returned to Muscat before disappearing into traffic around a neighborhood that is home to the U.S. Embassy.

The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the 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.

Associated Press journalists saw a convoy believed to be carrying Witkoff leave the Omani Foreign Ministry on Saturday afternoon and then speed off into the outskirts of Muscat. The convoy went into a compound and a few minutes later, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on the social platform X that the “indirect talks” had begun.

Afterward, Araghchi described the meeting as constructive to Iranian state TV, with four rounds of messages exchanged during the indirect portion.

“Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations — so-called ‘talks for the sake of talks,’ wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations,” he said. "Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task.”

That the two men spoke face-to-face satisfied a demand of the Americans. Trump and Witkoff both had described the talks as being “direct.”

“I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is our position today,” Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal before his trip. “That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries.”

He added: “Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability.”

Araghchi, however, sought to downplay the encounter as “a brief initial conversation, greetings and polite exchanges” — likely to avoid drawing the anger of hard-liners in Iran.

Badr al-Busaidi, Oman's foreign minister who shuttled between the two sides, said the countries have a “shared aim of concluding a fair and binding agreement.”

“I would like to thank my two colleagues for this engagement, which took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints and ultimately achieving regional and global peace, security and stability,” al-Busaidi wrote on X. “We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal.”

While the U.S. side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today, Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20%.

One thing it won’t do is give up its program entirely. That makes the proposal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution” — unworkable.

Iranians including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

Omani security personnel watch a convoy believed to be carrying U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Tourists take photos at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)

Tourists walk through the courtyard of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)

A couple walks through the courtyard of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)

A tourist walks through the courtyard of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)

Tourists walk through the courtyard of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)

Tourists take photos at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/ Fatima Shbair)

In this photo released by Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, meets his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi prior to negotiations with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)

President Donald Trump's administration announced a lawsuit Wednesday against Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

Also, a federal judge has said she'll order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.

Here's the latest:

A handful of preschools in Washington state have stopped providing Head Start services, saying the federal government hasn’t sent their funding.

Inspire Development Centers in Sunnyside, Washington, closed Wednesday with no plans to reopen until they receive federal money, a statement Tuesday said.

The closure affects more than 300 low-income preschoolers and more than 100 babies and toddlers. More than 50 staff members will be laid off this week, Inspire said.

Head Start, a federal child development program for the nation’s neediest kids, runs through private and public schools, which receive federal money to operate. Inspire said it typically receives annualnotice of its funding amount in February, with a finalized award by May 1. But this year, the centers haven’t heard from the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the Office of Head Start.

It regards his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said he the administration must try to “purge” itself of a contempt finding or he’ll launch hearings and potentially refer the matter for prosecution.

“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” the judge wrote.

The move by Judge Boasberg marks an escalation in a battle between the judicial and executives branches of government over a president’s powers to carry out key White House priorities. The Republican president has called for Boasberg’s impeachment while the Justice Department has accused the judge of overstepping his authority.

▶ Read more about the deportation flights case

Xi’s remarks were made at a dinner with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim while Xi was on a state visit as part of his Southeast Asia tour.

“In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical ... confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism,” Xi said.

Xi is visiting Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia this week, days after Trump’s tariff announcements disrupted the global economy, and he’s used the trip to promote Beijing as a source of stability in the region. Although the trip was likely planned before the tariffs uncertainty, it was a chance for Beijing to shore up its own relationships in the region and look for ways to mitigate the 145% tariffs Trump has kept on China, even as he paused tariffs for other countries.

▶ Read more about Chinese leader Xi Jinping

The federal judge says some nonprofits awarded billions for a so-called green bank to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects cannot have their contracts scrapped and must have access to some of the frozen money.

The ruling is a defeat for Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, which argues the program is rife with financial mismanagement.

The order late Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan “gives us a chance to breathe after the EPA unlawfully — and without due process — terminated our awards and blocked access to funds that were appropriated by Congress and legally obligated,” said Climate United CEO Beth Bafford.

The lawsuit by Climate United Fund and other groups contends that the EPA, Administrator Lee Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money, illegally blocked the funds awarded last year and had jeopardized the organizations’ operations.

▶ Read more about the EPA grants

That comes after earlier confusion over where the negotiations would be held.

The talks will be mediated by Oman, as they were last weekend in the sultanate’s capital of Muscat, the state TV report said.

On Monday, multiple officials said they would be held in Rome. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said early Tuesday they’d be held in Oman.

The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the 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 they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

▶ Read more about nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran

The Associated Press says the new White House media policy violates a court order by giving the administration sole discretion over who gets to question Trump, and the news agency asked a federal judge Wednesday to enforce that order.

The swift move was in response to a policy issued late Tuesday by the White House, which suffered a courtroom loss last week over The Associated Press’ ability to cover Trump. The plans, the latest attempt by the new administration to control coverage of its activities, sharply curtail the access of three news agencies that serve billions of readers around the world.

The AP filed Wednesday’s motion with U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, asking for relief “given defendant’s refusal to obey” his order last week. McFadden said the White House had violated the AP’s free speech by banning it from certain presidential events because Trump disagreed with the outlet’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

▶ Read more about news media access at the White House

The Trump administration said Wednesday it’s suing Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

Mills, a Democrat, said the lawsuit is really about the federal government imposing its will on Maine and that other states should be concerned.

“Today is the latest, expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law,” Mills said in a statement. “This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law.”

As measles outbreaks popped up across the U.S. this winter, pediatricians waited for the nation’s public health agency to send a routine, but important, letter that outlines how they could help stop the spread of the illness.

It wasn’t until last week — after the number of cases grew to more than 700, and a second young child in Texas had died from a measles infection — that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally issued its correspondence.

The delay of that letter may seem minor. But it’s one in a string of missteps that more than a dozen doctors, nurses and public health officials interviewed by The Associated Press identified in the Trump administration’s response to the outbreak.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to contain an epidemic in a tight-knit, religious community in West Texas have run counter to established public health strategies deployed to end past epidemics.

▶ Read more about the response to the measles outbreak

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen arrived in the Central American nation Wednesday morning as part of a trip meant to assess the condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to a person familiar with his trip who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

In a video posted to social media prior to his flight, Van Hollen, a Democrat, said the trip was meant to highlight the importance of “due process” and “the rule of law” for all Americans.

The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran prison, a move administration officials have said was erroneous.

Rep. Riley Moore, a Virginia Republican, posted Tuesday evening that he’d visited the prison.

“I leave now even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland,” Moore wrote on social media.

— Mary Clare Jalonick and Matt Brown

A prominent opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion programs is imploring President Trump to cut all federal money and strip nonprofit status at Harvard and other Ivy League schools that defy federal orders.

Conservative strategist Christopher Rufo said the government should respond to Harvard’s defiance with the same tools used to force desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement.

“Trump needs to follow through on his threat to defund one of the Ivy League universities,” Rufo said on social media Tuesday. “Cut the funding and watch the university implode.”

Harvard on Monday became the first school to openly defy sweeping orders from the Trump administration, prompting the government to freeze more than $2 billion in grants and contracts.

Rufo said Harvard has discriminated against white and Asian American students, citing events including graduation celebrations specific to certain ethnic groups, along with a 2021 theater performance exclusively “for Black-identifying audience members.”

She was asked at an unrelated news conference about the case of the El Salvador man living in Maryland who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison. The Supreme Court has said the administration must “facilitate” his release.

Bondi said the U.S. government would fly him back on a plane if El Salvador President Nayib Bukele wanted to return him.

“President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story,” Bondi said. Even if he were to return to the U.S., the government would deport him again, Bondi said.

“He would have come back, had one extra step of paperwork and gone back again. But he’s from El Salvador, he’s in El Salvador and that’s where the president plans on keeping him,” Bondi said.

The Trump administration has alleged he’s a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime and has denied the allegations.

Vice President JD Vance says the trip will take place April 18-24.

In Rome, Vance will meet with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who’s scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday. He’ll also meet with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

His India stops include New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, which is known for the Taj Mahal, and include meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vance and his family will also visit cultural sites.

The vice president converted to Catholicism. His wife, Usha Vance, is the first Indian American person to become second lady. They have three young children.

And the World Trade Organization says that’s due to Trump’s shifting tariff policies and a standoff with China, but it would take a more severe hit if the U.S. president carries through on his toughest “reciprocal” tariffs.

The decline in trade will be particularly steep in North America even without the stiffest tariffs, the global trade forum said Wednesday, with exports there this year expected to fall by 12.6% and imports by 9.6%.

The WTO based its report on the tariff situation as of Monday. Initially, 2025 and 2026 were expected to have continued expansion of world trade, but Trump’s trade war forced WTO economists to substantially downgrade their forecast, the forum said.

▶ Read more about the WTO’s trade forecast

This morning, at 11:30 a.m., Trump will receive an intelligence briefing. Later this evening, at 6:30 p.m., he will attend an Easter prayer service and dinner.

It’s fueled by a spending spree on big ticket items from gadgets to cars before Trump’s expansive new tariffs started kicking in.

Retail sales rose 1.4% in March, after rising 0.2% in February, according to the Commerce Department. Retail sales fell 1.2% in January, hurt in part by cold weather that kept more Americans indoors, denting sales at car dealers and most other stores.

Excluding sales at auto dealers, sales only rose 0.5%.

Sales at auto dealers rose 5.3%, while electronics retailers had a 0.8% increase. Sporting goods retailers enjoyed a 2.4% gain.

But analysts expect sales will start falling off as the slew of tariffs increase costs for companies and many retailers are forced to raise prices, hurting shopper demand.

▶ Read more about U.S. retail sales

The administration announced the lawsuit Wednesday against Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

The lawsuit follows weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that’s led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told the president: “We’ll see you in court.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the legal action at a news conference in Washington alongside former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has emerged as a public face of the opposition to transgender athletes.

▶ Read more about the lawsuit over transgender athletes

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Paris this week for talks with European allies on U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The State Department said Wednesday that Rubio and Witkoff would be in the French capital Thursday for the meetings, details of which weren’t immediately available.

The pair will have “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed.”

Rubio will also “discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

Newsom is challenging Trump’s authority to impose a 10% tariff on all imports.

The state, which will file the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, will ask the court to immediately block the tariffs.

Newsom said the tariffs “are wreaking chaos” on Californians and threatening jobs in the state, which has the largest economy in the nation.

“We’re standing up for American families who can’t afford to let the chaos continue,” he said.

The Democratic governor previously asked countries to exempt California exports from retaliatory tariffs.

Trump said in a morning post on his social media platform that he’ll attend the Wednesday meeting alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

“Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!” the president wrote.

Trump’s announcement last week of a 90-day pause on the latest series of duties put Japan’s 24% across-the-board rate on hold, but a 10% baseline tariff and a 25% tariff on cars, auto parts, steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. remain in place.

Japan’s chief trade negotiator, Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa, was traveling to Washington for the talks.

On Monday, Harvard became the first university to openly defy the Trump administration as it demands sweeping changes to limit activism on campus. The university frames the government’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.

Both sides are digging in for a clash that could test the limits of the government’s power and the independence that has made U.S. universities a destination for scholars around the world.

But no university is better positioned to put up a fight than Harvard, whose $53 billion endowment is the largest in the nation. But like other major universities, Harvard also depends on the federal funding that fuels its scientific and medical research. It’s unclear how long Harvard could continue without the frozen money.

For the Trump administration, Harvard presents the first major hurdle in its attempt to force change at universities that Republicans say have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.

▶ Read more about the clash between Harvard and the Trump administration

Trump said he wants to give money and an airplane ticket to any immigrant who is in the country illegally who chooses to “self-deport,” and work to get those who are “good” back in the U.S., a break from his usual hardline immigration rhetoric.

Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to carry out mass deportations, said in a taped interview with Fox Noticias that aired Tuesday that his administration is focused right now on getting “murderers” out of the country. But for others in the U.S. illegally, he said, he’s going to implement “a self-deportation program.”

Trump offered few details about the plan, including timing, but said the U.S. would provide immigrants airfare and a stipend.

“We’re going to give them a stipend. We’re going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we’re going to work with them — if they’re good — if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can,” Trump said.

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on “self-deportation”

A federal judge said Tuesday that she will order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland issued her order after Trump officials continually refused to retrieve Abrego Garcia. She said they defied a “clear” Supreme Court order.

She also downplayed Monday’s comments by White House officials and El Salvador’s president that they were unable to bring back Abrego Garcia, describing their statements as “two very misguided ships passing in the night.”

“The Supreme Court has spoken,” Xinis said, adding that what was said in the Oval Office on Monday “is not before the court.”

In her written order published Tuesday evening, Xinis called for the testimony of four Trump administration officials who work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

▶ Read more about Judge Xinis’s comments

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Commander-in-Chief trophy presentation to the Navy Midshipman football team in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump speaks during the Commander-in-Chief trophy presentation to the Navy Midshipman football team in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)