By Parisa Hafezi, Steve Holland and Humeyra Pamuk<\/p>\n
DUBAI\/WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) \u2013 Iran and the United States are set to hold high-stakes negotiations in Oman on Friday over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme, but a dispute over the agenda, most notably differences over Tehran\u2019s formidable missile programme, suggests progress will be hard-won, with the threat of another Middle East war looming.<\/p>\n
While both sides \u200dhave signalled readiness to revive diplomacy over Tehran\u2019s long-running nuclear dispute with the West, Washington wants the talks to cover Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, its ballistic missiles, support for armed groups around the region and \u201ctreatment of their own people\u201d, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Iran has said it wants Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss only nuclear issues in Muscat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran enters diplomacy with open eyes and a steady memory of the past year. We engage in good faith and stand firm on our rights. Commitments need to be honored,\u201d\u00a0Araqchi said on X on \u200cFriday ahead of the talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommitments need to be honored. Equal standing, mutual respect and mutual interest are \u200cnot rhetoric \u2014 they are a must and the pillars of a durable agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in the final stages of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Tehran has since said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s leadership remains deeply concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump may still carry out his threats to strike Iran amid a buildup by the U.S. Navy near Iran.<\/p>\n
The U.S. naval buildup, which \u200bTrump has called a massive \u201carmada\u201d, has followed a bloody government crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran last month, heightening tensions between Washington and Tehran.<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday told reporters that Trump was looking to determine whether a deal can be struck but \u200dalso issued a warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these negotiations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian \u200bregime that the president has many options at his disposal, aside from diplomacy as the commander-in-chief of \u200bthe most powerful military in the history of the world,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Trump has warned that \u201cbad things\u201d would probably happen if a deal could not \u200dbe reached, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic in a standoff that has led to mutual threats of airstrikes.<\/p>\n
Iran has warned it would respond harshly to any military strike and has cautioned neighbouring countries hosting U.S. bases that they could be in the firing line if they were involved in an attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to see them conceding enough in talks tomorrow for the U.S. credibly to be able to claim that it\u2019s made a breakthrough. And this, is where I think military conflict is more likely than not,\u201d Edmund \u200dFitton-Brown, senior fellow at Washington-based think-tank FDD, said.<\/p>\n
URANIUM ENRICHMENT<\/p>\n
Negotiators in Oman will have to navigate Iran\u2019s red line on discussing its missile programme to reach a deal and avert future military action. Tehran has flatly ruled out talks on its \u201cdefence capabilities, including missiles and their range.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours before the \u200dtalks, Iran\u2019s state TV said that \u201cone of the \u200dcountry\u2019s most advanced long-range ballistic missiles, the Khorramshahr 4\u201d, had been deployed at one of the Revolutionary \u200bGuards\u2019 vast underground missile complexes.<\/p>\n
However, Tehran is willing to show \u201cflexibility on uranium enrichment, including handing over \u200b400 kg of \u2060highly enriched uranium (HEU) and accepting zero enrichment under a consortium arrangement as a solution,\u201d Iranian officials \u200ctold Reuters last week. Iran also insists that its right to enrich uranium is not negotiable.<\/p>\n
Iran says its nuclear activities are meant for peaceful, not military purposes, while the U.S. and Israel have accused it of past efforts to develop nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s influence throughout the region has been severely weakened by Israel\u2019s attacks on its regional allies \u2013 known as the \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d\u00a0 \u2013 from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq \u2013 as well as by the ousting of Iran\u2019s close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Humeyra Pamuk and Steve Holland; Editing \u2060by Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Parisa Hafezi, Steve Holland and Humeyra Pamuk DUBAI\/WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) \u2013 Iran and the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-452114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452114","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=452114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}