Iran and the United States will hold high-level talks in Oman on Saturday aimed at jump-starting negotiations over Tehran's fast-advancing nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump threatening military action if there is no deal.
Iranian media reported that the Iranian and US delegations have arrived in Muscat, and the Iranians have met with Omani officials ahead of talks.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is leading the Iranian delegation, while the talks will be handled on the US side by Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Iran is approaching the talks warily, sceptical that they could lead to a deal and suspicious of Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if it does not halt its nuclear programme.
While each side has talked up the chances of some progress, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades and have not agreed on whether the talks will be face-to-face, as Trump demands, or indirect, as Iran wants.
Signs of movement could help cool tensions in a region aflame since 2023 with wars in Gaza and Lebanon, missile fire between Iran and Israel, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and the overthrow of Bashar al Assad in Syria.
However, failure would aggravate fears of a wider conflagration across a region that exports much of the world's oil. Tehran has cautioned neighbouring countries that have US bases that they would face "severe consequences" if they were involved in any US military attack on Iran.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in the Islamic Republic's complex power structure has the final say on key state matters, has given Araqchi "full authority" for the talks, an Iranian official told Reuters.
"The duration of the talks, that will only be about the nuclear issue, will depend on the US side's seriousness and goodwill," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran has ruled out negotiating its defence capabilities, such as its missile programme.
A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader warns that US aggression would leave Iran with no option but to pursue nuclear weapons for defence.
Decades-long dispute
Iran has always maintained its nuclear programme is intended for purely civilian purposes, but Western countries believe it wants to build an atomic bomb.
They say Iran's enrichment of uranium, a nuclear fuel source, has gone far beyond the requirements of a civilian programme and has produced stocks at a level of fissile purity close to those required in warheads.
Trump, who has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term, reimposing crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Since then, Iran's nuclear programme has leaped forward, including by enriching uranium to 60%, a technical step from the levels needed for a bomb.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday he hoped that the talks would lead to peace, adding that "We've been very clear what Iran is never going to have a nuclear weapon, and I think that's what led to this meeting."
Tehran responded the following day, saying it was giving the United States a "genuine chance" despite what it called Washington's "prevailing confrontational hoopla".
Washington's ally Israel, which regards Iran's nuclear programme as an existential threat, has long threatened to attack Iran if diplomacy fails to curb its nuclear ambitions.
Tehran's influence throughout the Middle East has been severely curbed, with its regional allies — known as the "Axis of Resistance" — either dismantled or badly hurt since the start of the Israeli war in Gaza and the fall of Bashar al Assad in Syria in December.
The Axis includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various Shia armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
While mostly symbolic, the move signals US pressure ahead of upcoming nuclear talks in Oman.
