DUBAI:
The United States and Iran are to hold talks Friday in Oman after Tehran requested a change of venue to limit negotiations to its nuclear program, a regional official said, as the buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East sparked fears of a confrontation.
Iran wants the meeting to take place in Oman as a continuation of previous rounds of negotiations held in the Gulf Arab country over its nuclear program, requesting a change of venue from Turkey to avoid any extension of discussions to issues such as Tehran’s ballistic missiles, the regional official said.
Iran has said it will not make concessions on its formidable ballistic missile program – one of the largest in the Middle East – calling it a red line in negotiations. Tehran, which claims to have rebuilt its stock of ballistic missiles since it was attacked by Israel last year, has warned that it would launch its missiles to defend the Islamic Republic if its security was threatened.
The regional official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran had emphasized from the start that it would only discuss its nuclear program, while Washington wanted other issues on the agenda.
Oil prices extended gains Wednesday after the United States shot down an Iranian drone and armed Iranian boats approached a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz, reigniting fears of an escalation between Washington and Tehran.
US President Donald Trump has warned that “bad things” are likely to happen if a deal cannot be reached, increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic in a standoff that has led to mutual threats of airstrikes and stoked fears of a wider war.
The US military on Tuesday shot down an Iranian drone that was “aggressively” approaching the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, the US military said, in an incident first reported by Reuters.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday: “We’re negotiating with them right now.” He gave no further details and declined to say where he hoped the negotiations would take place. A source familiar with the matter said Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was expected to participate in the negotiations, alongside US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
Ministers from several other countries in the region, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, were also expected, but a regional source told Reuters that Tehran only wanted bilateral negotiations with the United States.
In June, the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the end of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Most recently, the U.S. Navy has increased its forces in the region following Iran’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests last month, the deadliest since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Trump, who did not follow through on his threats of intervention, has since demanded nuclear concessions from Iran, sending a flotilla to its shores. Iran’s leaders increasingly fear that a U.S. strike could break their grip on power by driving an already angry population onto the streets, according to six current and former Iranian officials.
The priority of the diplomatic effort is to avoid conflict and ease tensions, a regional official told Reuters earlier.
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had demanded three conditions for resuming negotiations: zero uranium enrichment in Iran, limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and an end to its support for regional proxies.
Iran has long said the three demands are unacceptable attacks on its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters that its clerical leaders view the ballistic missile program, rather than uranium enrichment, as the main obstacle.
An Iranian official said there should be no preconditions for negotiations and that Iran was willing to show flexibility on uranium enrichment, which it said is intended for peaceful, not military, purposes. Since the US strikes in June, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.
In another incident on Tuesday, this one in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces approached a U.S.-flagged oil tanker at high speed and threatened to board and seize it.
Maritime risk management group Vanguard said Iranian boats ordered the tanker to stop its engine and prepare to be boarded. Instead, the tanker sped up and continued its journey.
