WASHINGTON: Meaningful talks between the United States and Iran will have to include Tehran’s missile arsenal and other issues, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, as Tehran vowed that it would only discuss its nuclear programme, not its missiles.
Talks between the countries amid fears of a military confrontation have been planned for Friday, with Iran pushing to restrict the negotiations to discussion of its long-running nuclear dispute with Western countries.
Differences over the scope of the talks and lack of agreement on a venue raised doubts whether the meeting would take place as planned, leaving open the possibility that U.S. President Donald Trump could carry out his threat to strike Iran.
“If the Iranians want to meet, we’re ready,” Rubio said. But he added that talks would have to include the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its support for groups around the Middle East and its treatment of its own people, besides the nuclear dispute.
A senior Iranian official, however, said the talks would only be about Iran’s nuclear programme, and that its missile programme was “off the table”. A second senior Iranian official said U.S. insistence on discussing non-nuclear issues could jeopardize the talks that Tehran wants to hold in Oman.
Talks may move to Oman
The meeting was originally planned for Turkey, but a Gulf official, another regional official and Iranian state-affiliated media said the talks were expected to take place in Oman.
Rubio said U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was prepared for the talks but that the location was “still being worked through” after Iran had previously agreed to a particular format.
But Axios later reported, citing two U.S. officials, that the U.S. told Iran on Wednesday that it will not agree to Tehran’s demands to change the location and format of talks.
READ MORE: Nuclear talks between US and Iran to take place in Oman on Friday, Axios reports
U.S. officials considered the request to change the venue, but then decided to reject it, Axios said. “We told them it is this or nothing, and they said, ‘Ok, then nothing,’” a senior U.S. official was quoted as saying.
Iran wanted the meeting to take place in Oman as a continuation of previous rounds of talks held in the Gulf Arab country on its nuclear programme and asked for a change of location from Turkey, the regional official said.
This was to avoid any expansion of the discussions to issues such as Tehran’s ballistic missiles, the regional official said.
Plans for the talks, to be mediated by several countries, were still being finalised, the Gulf official said, adding that the discussions would start on the nuclear issue and then move to other topics on a step-by-step basis.
The diplomatic efforts come after Trump’s threats of military action against Iran during its bloody crackdown on protesters last month and the deployment of more naval power to the Gulf.
After Israel and the United States bombed the Islamic Republic last summer, renewed friction has kindled fears among regional states of a major conflagration that could rebound on them or cause long-term chaos in Iran.
Trump has continued to weigh the option of strikes on Iran, sources say. Oil prices have risen on the tension.
Nuclear dispute
U.S. President Donald 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.
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.
READ MORE: Iran demands changes in venue and scope of talks with US
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during last month’s crackdown, has since demanded nuclear concessions from Iran, sending a flotilla to its coast.
Iran also hopes for an agreement that could help lift Western sanctions over its nuclear programme that have ravaged its economy – a major driver of last month’s unrest.
Ministers from several other countries in the region including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates had been expected to attend Friday’s talks, but a regional source told Reuters that Tehran wanted only bilateral talks with the U.S.
Ballistic missile stockpile
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had demanded three conditions for the resumption of talks: zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile programme and an end to 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.
An Iranian official said there should not be preconditions for talks and that Iran was ready to show flexibility on uranium enrichment, which it says is for peaceful, not military purposes.
Since the U.S. strikes in June, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.
In June, the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign and Iran struck back at Israel with missiles and drones. Iran said it replenished its missile stockpile after the war with Israel last year, warning it will unleash its missiles if its security is under threat.
Adding to tensions, on Tuesday the U.S. military 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.
In another incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Central Command said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces had approached a U.S.-flagged tanker at speed and threatened to board and seize it.
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