US and Iran to hold nuclear talks in Oman amid heightened tensions, diplomat says

Dubai: Nuclear talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place in Oman on Friday, ​a regional diplomat said, with a possible confrontation looming as U.S. President Donald Trump builds up forces in the Middle East.

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 standoff 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 Tuesday, citing an Arab source.

IRAN WANTS BILATERAL ​TALKS

The U.S. military on Tuesday shot down an Iranian drone that "aggressively" approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, the U.S. military said, in an incident first reported by Reuters.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday: "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 Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due to take part in the talks, along with U.S. 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 had also been expected to attend, but the regional source told Reuters that Tehran now wanted only bilateral talks with the U.S.

The U.S. naval buildup follows Iran's violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month in the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.

Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats ⁠to intervene, has since demanded nuclear concessions from Iran and sent a flotilla to its coast.

The priority of the ⁠diplomatic effort is to avoid conflict and de-escalate tension, a regional official told Reuters earlier.

Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried ‌a U.S. 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 toward the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier "with unclear intent" was shot down by an F-35 U.S. fighter jet on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said connection had been lost with a drone in international waters, ‍but the reason was unknown.

The U.S. Central Command said in another incident on Tuesday, this one in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed a U.S.-flagged tanker.

"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 spokesperson 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, 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 Trump had demanded three conditions for resumption ‌of talks: zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran's ballistic missile programme and 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.