U.S. and Iran to Hold Talks in Oman on Friday

Iran and the United States will meet for a new round of negotiations on Friday in Oman, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and the White House said on Wednesday, after days of conflicting reports on the talks’ timing, location and format.

Mr. Araghchi and his team were expected to hold a face-to-face meeting with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, according to three senior Iranian officials. Oman’s foreign minister, as the host, was also expected to be present.

The White House on Wednesday confirmed that the meeting would take place in Oman with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner. Mr. Araghchi announced on social media that the talks would take place in the Omani capital, Muscat.

The meeting on Friday would be the first time that Tehran and Washington held talks since the 12-day war in June with Israel that culminated in American fighter jets bombing and severely damaging Iran’s three main nuclear facilities, effectively halting its nuclear program. Although they haven’t met since June, Mr. Araghchi and Mr. Witkoff have been in direct contact by text intermittently, according to Iranian and American officials.

For the past week, regional countries have been mediating between Iran and the United States to avert a war, telling both sides that another conflict could spread and destabilize the Middle East.

Mr. Trump has threatened Iran with a “massive armada” after moving warships near Iran, and had vowed to carry out military strikes against the country “with speed and violence” if it did not accept U.S. demands to freeze its nuclear program and discard its stockpile of enriched uranium; reduce the range of its ballistic missiles; and stop arming and funding militant groups in the region.

Iran has said that caving in to Mr. Trump’s demands would amount to surrendering and has threatened to respond forcefully to any attack by striking U.S. military targets in the region and Israel.

The threats of military strikes came after a nationwide uprising in Iran in early January, with protesters demanding the end of the Islamic Republic’s rule. Iran crushed the protests with lethal force, killing at least 6,883 people, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency, a Washington-based group focused on Iran. The group said the numbers could rise significantly when the verification process was complete.

“Iran is going to have to sit down and talk because they have no other option,” Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “They either have to risk war or sit down and talk because Donald Trump has taken the concept of gunboat diplomacy literally.”

For the past few days, details about the talks have gone back and forth. Talks were first scheduled for Friday in Istanbul, given Turkey’s leading role as a mediator. Foreign ministers from regional Arab countries, including Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, were invited to participate.

But Iran balked. On Tuesday, Tehran requested a last-minute change of venue and format. It asked that the meeting be held in Oman and to limit attendees to Iranian and American representatives, according to the three senior Iranian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive issues.

Iran’s senior leadership was concerned, the officials said, that a meeting with wider participation would make it seem as if Mr. Trump was putting on a “show” and Iran was being cornered into negotiating with the entire region and not just Washington.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday to reporters that Iran had asked to change the meeting place. He also said that in order for the talks to be meaningful, discussions would have to include the nuclear program, the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its support for regional militias and its treatment of its citizens.

The three Iranian officials said the planned talks nearly collapsed on Wednesday morning, when Mr. Araghchi informed Arab counterparts that if the United States insisted on broadening the discussion beyond Iran’s nuclear program, talks would be called off. As news of Iran’s stance emerged, the country’s currency, the rial, took a nosedive against the American dollar.

Arab countries in the region and Turkey mobilized to persuade both sides to hold the meeting in Oman on Friday and not to lose the momentum, according to an Arab official from the region and the three Iranian officials. The Arab official also insisted on not being named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Then, talks were back on again, with Mr. Araghchi saying on social media that he was grateful for “our Omani brothers for making all the necessary arrangements."

Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, a research institution, said Iran was walking a fine line between maintaining control over the talks and not alienating Arab allies and Turkey.

“They are thinking if we are seen as desperate for a deal, then we will be bullied at the table, so we should impose our own conditions of where the table will be, who will be at the table and so on,” Mr. Vaez said.

The three Iranian officials and the Arab official said that, in the end, everyone had given an inch. The United States agreed that the talks would be held in Oman and exclude regional actors. Iranian officials agreed to meet face-to-face with their American counterparts. And both sides agreed to focus on the nuclear program but to also discuss missiles and militant groups, with the goal of coming up with a framework for a deal.

“At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage, has always been prepared to engage with Iran,” Mr. Rubio told reporters on Wednesday.

Tyler Pager contributed reporting.