Iran-US talks back on, as Trump warns supreme leader
Iran and the United States said Wednesday they were going ahead with nuclear talks in Oman later this week, even as President Donald Trump piled pressure on Tehran's supreme leader by saying he should be "very worried."
Doubts had swirled about the fate of the negotiations after a report earlier Wednesday that the talks between the bitter foes were falling apart due to disagreements about the format and the venue.
The uncertainty had increased fears of renewed US military action against Tehran, amid soaring tensions since Iran violently put down some of the most serious protests against its rule since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said nuclear talks were now "scheduled" for Friday in Muscat. "I'm grateful to our Omani brothers for making all necessary arrangements," he said on X.
A White House official also confirmed to AFP that the meeting would happen in Oman on Friday.
Diplomats had earlier said the meeting would happen in Turkey. But the Axios news outlet said the US was on the verge of pulling out, as Iran disputed both the location and whether its ballistic missile program should be included.
But Trump, who has sharply built up the US military presence in the region and refused to rule out new military action, continued to up the pressure on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"I would say he should be very worried," Trump said Wednesday in an interview with US broadcaster NBC News.
Trump also said that Iran had eyed a new nuclear facility after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during Israel's June war against the Islamic republic.
"They were thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country," Trump told NBC. "We found out about it, I said, you do that, we're going to do very bad things to you."
- 'Ballistic missiles' -
Trump has sent a US aircraft carrier group -- which he calls an "armada" -- to the region and one of its planes shot down an Iranian drone on Tuesday. Iran has threatened retaliation against US targets in the region if attacked.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier Wednesday that the United States was "ready" to meet Iran -- but insisted that discussions must cover Tehran's missile and nuclear programs to be "meaningful."
"They will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region, that includes their nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people," he said.
Rubio said that Trump's roving envoy Steve Witkoff had been ready to meet with Iran in Turkey but then received "conflicting reports" on whether Tehran had agreed.
Iran in previous talks on its disputed nuclear program has ruled out discussions on its missiles, casting the weapons that can hit Israel as a tool of self-defense to which every country has a right.
But Iran has been under growing pressure from the protests and after an Israeli bombing campaign last year. Iran has also lost key regional allies with Israel's severe degrading of Lebanon's Hezbollah and the fall of veteran Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
(Y.Leyard--DTZ)
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