White House clarifies stance on US-Iran nuclear talks after reports claimed it collapsed – Details inside

The United States and Iran are set to hold talks on Tehran’s nuclear program on Friday (Feb 6) in Oman, the White House confirmed on Wednesday (Feb 4). This comes following a report claiming that the negotiations were collapsing due to disagreements over the location and format. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said the meeting was due to be held in Muscat. Earlier officials had said that the meeting would likely happen in Turkey.

On Wednesday (Feb 4), Iran and the US said that they were going ahead with nuclear talks in Oman later this week. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has continued to ramp up pressure on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he should be “very worried”.

According to an Axios report, several leaders from West Asia have called on the Trump administration not to follow through on threats to walk away. The talks between the US and Iran were collapsing due to disagreements about the format and venue. The tensions raised concerns that Trump would resort to military action against Tehran, the outlet reported, citing sources.

The report added that at least nine nations in the region contacted the top White House officials to urge them not to cancel the meeting.

“They asked us to keep the meeting and listen to what the Iranians have to say. We have told the Arabs that we will do the meeting if they insist. But we are very sceptical,” a US official was cited as saying.

Another official said that the US agreed to hold the meeting “to be respectful” to its allies in the region and “in order to continue pursuing the diplomatic track.”

Trump warns Khamenei

Warning Iran’s supreme leader, Trump told NBC in an interview, “I would say he should be very worried.”

Trump added that Iran also eyed a new nuclear facility after the June strikes on Iranian nuclear sites when the US joined Israel in the 12-day war against the Islamic Republic.

“They were thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country,” Trump said. “We found out about it, I said, you do that, we’re going to do very bad things to you.”