US and Iran to hold nuclear talks in Oman amid heightened tensions, diplomat says
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Iran has said it will not make concessions on its ballistic missile programme, one of the three conditions US President Donald Trump demanded for talks to resume.
PHOTO: REUTERS
DUBAI – Nuclear talks between the US and Iran are expected to take place in Oman on Feb 6, a regional diplomat said, with a possible confrontation looming as US President Donald Trump builds up forces in the Middle East.
Mr Trump has warned that “bad things” would probably happen if a deal could not be reached, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic in a stand-off that has led to mutual threats of air strikes and stirred fears of escalation into a wider war.
Iran has said it will not make concessions on its formidable ballistic missile programme, calling that a red line in negotiations.
The Trump administration agreed to an Iranian request to move the talks from Turkey, and negotiations are still ongoing about whether Arab and Muslim countries from the region will join the talks in Oman, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on Feb 3, citing an Arab source.
Iran wants bilateral talks
The US military on Feb 3 shot down an Iranian drone
Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Feb 3: “We are negotiating with them right now.”
But he did not elaborate and declined to say where he expected the talks to take place.
A source familiar with the situation said Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was due to take part in the talks, along with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Ministers from several other countries in the region, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, had also been expected to attend, but the regional source told Reuters that Tehran now wanted only bilateral talks with the US.
The US naval build-up follows Iran’s violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations
Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried a US strike could break its grip on power by driving an already enraged public back onto the streets, according to six current and former Iranian officials.
Confrontations at sea
With tensions running high, an Iranian Shahed-139 drone flying towards the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier “with unclear intent” was shot down by an F-35 US fighter jet on Feb 3, the US military said.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said connection had been lost with a drone in international waters, but the reason was unknown.
The US Central Command said that in another incident on Feb 3
“Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the Central Command, said.
Maritime risk management group Vanguard said the Iranian boats ordered the tanker to stop its engine and prepare to be boarded. Instead, the tanker sped up and continued its voyage.
In June 2025, the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Since then, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work – which it says is for peaceful, not military purposes – has stopped.
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Mr Trump had demanded three conditions for resumption of talks: zero enrichment of uranium in Iran; limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile programme; and the regime ending its support for regional proxies.
Iran has long said all three demands are unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers saw the ballistic missile programme, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.
REUTERS
