Good evening, I'm John Yang. In Oman today, the United States and Iran appear to have taken the first steps that could lead to a new agreement to limit Iran's nuclear activities and lift U.S. economic sanctions.

On social media, the Omane foreign minister who mediated today's indirect talks said they took place in a friendly atmosphere conducive to bridging viewpoints.

The White House described the meeting as very positive and constructive.

And the Iranian foreign minister said the two sides briefly interacted when their paths crossed at the end of today's session

and that they will meet again next Saturday.

Karim Sajyapur is a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He focuses on Iran and U.S. Middle East policy.

Karim, a little brief encounter.

It sounds like in a hallway, agreement to meet again.

Is this about as much as one could hope out of this meeting?

The fact that they've agreed on a second meeting, I think, is as much anyone could have hoped for.

But our expectations should be realistic.

This is not a negotiation about a U.S.-Iran rapprochement and Nixon-to-China moments, you know, normalization of relations.

This is really whether the two sides can agree on something which limits Iran's nuclear program,

and that's going to be a tall order.

President Trump says he wants a stronger agreement than the one President Obama got.

Is that possible?

I think that's going to be very difficult for President Trump,

because when he pulled out of the deal in 2018, Iran essentially put his foot on the gas.

And if you think of getting a nuclear bomb as a 26-mile marathon, Iran is in mile 25 right now.

And so the big challenge President Trump is going to have is reversing Iran's program significantly. And if he's not able

to do that, he's going to have to answer to two constituencies. One are congressional Republicans,

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