critical to global trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cTwo IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M\/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Fars news agency cited unnamed Iranian officials as saying later in the day that a vessel had entered Iranian territorial waters without the necessary legal permits.<\/p>\n
The officials said the vessel was warned and left the area \u201cwithout any special security event taking place\u201d.<\/p>\n
Talks expected<\/p>\n
The two incidents did not appear to alter plans for the talks, which are expected to take place on Friday.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said that Trump\u2019s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, \u201cis set to have conversations with the Iranians later this week\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are still scheduled as of right now,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n
Tasnim quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying consultations were under way to select a venue for the meeting, with Turkiye, Oman and several other countries in the region having offered to host.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press news agency, citing an unnamed Turkish official, said foreign ministers from Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also been invited to attend the talks, if they happen.<\/p>\n
Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was working with contacts in Iran at the highest levels to de-escalate the situation. \u201cAll of us in the region collectively\u2026 are making the right contacts right connections and contacts to make sure we are playing a positive role,\u201d said Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman for the ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cQatar is not standing alone on this, we are working together in tandem to make sure we de-escalate and protect our region and make sure there are not more escalations,’\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Reuters news agency meanwhile reported that Iran is demanding that the talks be held in Oman, not Turkiye, and that the scope be narrowed to two-way negotiations on nuclear issues only. It cited an unnamed regional source.<\/p>\n
Last year, US and Iranian officials held five rounds of talks in Oman, until discussions were suspended due to Israel\u2019s 12-day war on Iran, which Washington later joined.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian officials were \u201clooking for a pragmatic approach when it comes to these talks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Iranian officials have said they want the negotiations to focus on the country\u2019s nuclear programme, while Washington reportedly wants to discuss a range of issues, including Iran\u2019s ties to regional armed groups as well as its ballistic missile and defence programmes.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Iran] is saying it is appreciative of regional efforts to [bring] down [tensions], while the major issue remains to be solved between Washington and Tehran,\u201d Asadi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, we\u2019ve also got a trust issue, and we have to remember that there were talks in June, when the US and Israel attacked Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities, nuclear scientists, military headquarters, as well as civilian infrastructure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Analysts, meanwhile, say they do not believe the talks can be fruitful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is, will this lead to anything? I have not seen any signals from Washington or Tehran suggesting that either side is willing to, if you will, soften their red lines,\u201d Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, unless that changes, unless there is a last-minute surprise by either the American or Iranian side, then I can\u2019t really see how holding diplomatic talks might take this crisis in a peaceful direction,\u201d he said, adding that, this time, the US was \u201cflexing muscle\u201d and \u201cposturing\u201d a lot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the US deploying all of these military assets to really get the Iranian attention on the need for a deal soon rather than later? Or is it perhaps preparing for something protracted, in terms of a political project that looks like regime change in the Islamic Republic, which some of Trump\u2019s supporters are calling for?\u201d Vatanka said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States President Donald Trump has confirmed that talks with Iran are continuing to try to de-escalate tensions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,801,129,4379,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-447877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-middle-east","11":"tag-military","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-us-canada","20":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}