US accepts Iran’s venue change and nuclear-only agenda ahead of talks

Previous plans had included parallel multilateral sessions addressing missiles, support for proxy groups, and human rights issues.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Talks between the United States and Iran are now set to take place in Oman on Friday after a dispute over venue and format briefly threatened to derail the meeting, Axios reported, citing regional and US sources.

The negotiations had originally been planned for Istanbul, where US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were expected to meet.

Iran then asked to relocate the discussions to Oman and limit them strictly to the nuclear issue, rejecting broader talks that Washington and several regional countries hoped would include ballistic missiles and Tehran’s regional proxy activity.

“They want to change the format, they want to change the scope,” a regional diplomat familiar with Iran’s position told Axios. “They only want to discuss the nuclear file with the Americans.”

US officials initially resisted the request, at one point indicating the meeting could be canceled.

That prospect prompted urgent outreach from at least nine Middle Eastern governments to the White House, urging the Trump administration to proceed with the talks.

One US official told Axios, “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 skeptical.”

Araghchi later confirmed on X that the talks were “scheduled to be held in Muscat at about 10 a.m. Friday,” thanking Oman for arranging the meeting.

Earlier in the week, a senior US official had taken a firmer tone, saying, “We told them it is this or nothing, and they said, ‘OK, then nothing.’” The official added that Washington did not want to repeat past negotiating patterns and wanted any agreement to be substantive.

The current plan now calls only for bilateral US-Iran discussions focused on the nuclear file.

Previous plans had included parallel multilateral sessions addressing missiles, support for proxy groups, and human rights issues.

Ahead of the talks, Witkoff met in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior defense officials, who shared intelligence assessments and cautioned against trusting Tehran. Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Qatar before heading to Oman.

Despite agreeing to proceed, US officials signaled continued doubt about the prospects for a breakthrough. “We are not naive about the Iranians. If there is a real conversation to have we will have it but we are not going to waste our time,” one official said.