By Parisa Hafezi
DUBAI (Reuters) – 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 U.S. President Donald Trump threatening military action if there is no deal.
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 the government 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 U.S. bases that they would face “severe consequences” if they were involved in any U.S. 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 Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi “full authority” for the talks, an Iranian official told Reuters.
Araqchi is leading the Iranian delegation, while the talks will be handled on the U.S. side by Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
“The duration of the talks, that will only be about the nuclear issue, will depend on the U.S. 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.
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.
U.S. 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 Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December.
The Axis includes not only Hamas but also Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various Shi’ite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Angus McDowall and Frances Kerry)
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