NEED TO KNOW

• Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told CBS News Friday that “substantial progress” had been made and a “peace deal is within our reach” — hours before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran
• Iran had agreed to “never, ever” possess nuclear material capable of creating a bomb, with zero stockpiling and full IAEA verification — concessions Albusaidi called “something completely new” that surpassed the 2015 Obama-era deal
• Technical talks were scheduled for Monday in Vienna and Albusaidi planned to meet with U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner days later — those meetings will not happen

WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — Hours before the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes across Iran on Saturday, the diplomat who brokered three rounds of nuclear talks over the past month was on American television describing the closest the two countries had come to a deal — and pleading for more time.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Friday that negotiators had made “substantial progress” that was “far, far more than any time before” and that “a peace deal is within our reach.”

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Within 24 hours, that deal was buried under cruise missiles.

WATCH: After meeting with Vice President JD Vance, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi – a key mediator in the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks – tells @margbrennan “the peace deal is within our reach.” He also said, “I don’t think any alternative to diplomacy is going to solve this… pic.twitter.com/zOuSPxLy5j

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 27, 2026

What Iran Had Agreed To

The specifics Albusaidi outlined on camera were significant — and directly contradicted the justification President Donald Trump offered hours later for launching strikes.

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According to the Omani foreign minister, Iran had agreed to three conditions during the Geneva negotiations:

Zero nuclear stockpiling. Iran committed to “never, ever have nuclear material that will create a bomb.” Existing enriched uranium would be “blended to the lowest level possible” and converted into fuel that would be “irreversible.”

Full IAEA verification. Iran agreed to grant International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors “full access” to its nuclear sites. Albusaidi said he was “quite confident” American inspectors would also have access.

No bomb-capable material on Iranian soil. Albusaidi called this “something that is not in the old deal” negotiated under President Barack Obama. “This is something completely new. It really makes the enrichment argument less relevant, because now we are talking about zero stockpiling.”

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — which Trump called “horrible” and withdrew from during his first term — allowed Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67% and maintain limited stockpiles under IAEA monitoring. What Albusaidi described went substantially further.

“I’m asking to continue this process because we have already achieved quite a substantial progress in the direction of a deal. And the heart of this deal is very important, and I think we have captured that heart.” — Badr Albusaidi, Omani Foreign Minister

What Trump Said — On The Same Day

Earlier Friday, Trump told reporters he was “not happy” with the pace of negotiations and had not decided whether to authorize strikes. “I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have,” he said.

During an event in Texas that afternoon, Trump demanded Iran stop enrichment entirely. “Not 20%, 30%, they always want 20%, 30%, they want it for civilian, you know, for civil,” he said. “I think it’s uncivil.”

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