By Alexander Ward, Benoit Faucon and Summer Said

The U.S. and Iran have reached an agreement to hold nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, ending a drama over what would be discussed, but restarting a delicate diplomatic dance that may yet end with President Trump ordering airstrikes on Iran.

Both the White House and Iran's foreign ministry confirmed the Friday sit down, the first time since last May that Washington and Tehran will hold formal negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. wants Tehran to stop enriching uranium, curb its ballistic missile program and end its support for regional proxies. Iran has said it is willing to discuss only its nuclear work.

For a brief period Wednesday, the talks seemed in danger of collapsing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Iran had backed out of an agreed-to format in which the U.S. and Iran would be joined by regional nations in Turkey.

Rubio said that American conditions for agreeing to negotiations included assurances that the talks would cover more than Iran's nuclear efforts, such as Tehran's crackdown on protesters. "I'm not sure you can reach a deal with these guys, but we're going to try to find out," he told reporters.

Hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said "nuclear talks" were on in the Omani capital. A White House official confirmed that was the case.

The saga was the latest whiplash-inducing moment in Trump's Iran policy, which has swung from seeking a major deal with Tehran to pushing regime change. The U.S. still hasn't ruled out strikes on Iran for its mistreatment of demonstrators and nuclear work -- and has massed air and naval forces in the region.

"Given the difficulty in accomplishing anything diplomatically with Iran -- and especially on issues of human rights -- a fresh round of U.S. and perhaps Israeli strikes on Iran seems the likeliest outcome of this crisis," said Michael Singh, a former National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration focused on the Middle East. "'Make a deal or else' is President Trump's default approach to foreign relations."

Trump's Iran envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner will represent the U.S. in the talks. It is the first time Kushner will be involved in talks with Iran.

Arab mediators were scrambling late Wednesday to keep the talks on track.

With the U.S. piling up forces in the Middle East, regional powers had pushed hard to open a diplomatic pathway that might avert a possible war while addressing their own concerns about Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missiles and support for regional militias. This week, it appeared the talks were set to happen in Turkey and would bring Iranian and regional officials together with the senior U.S. officials.

On Tuesday, Iranian officials began circulating the message that they weren't on board with the venue or format. They pushed to negotiate only with the U.S. and to narrow the scope to Iran's nuclear program, leaving out its missiles and regional militia allies. That drew a sharp response from some regional officials.

Analysts said Tehran's move was right out of the regime's playbook for high-stakes negotiations -- a last-minute curveball aimed at leaving everyone else off balance.

"They've done it before in terms of the nuclear negotiations, where you think that on such and such a date, you both agreed that X would be the case, and then the issue is reopened," said Alan Eyre, a former senior U.S. diplomat and nuclear negotiator with Iran.

The Iranian reversal also came after Iran earlier launched a drone at an American aircraft carrier and sent gunboats to harass a U.S.-flagged oil tanker.

"It's not particularly auspicious in terms of what comes next," said Michael Wahid Hanna, the U.S. program director at International Crisis Group. "The buildup of force and the threat of force hasn't created that much room for actual diplomacy."

With few good options, Iran is playing for time, analysts said -- and risking miscalculation as the armed standoff continues. It may now face significant U.S. pressure to swiftly show that it is open to serious concessions as soon as Friday's meeting.

Despite the maneuvering, the White House has repeatedly said it still hopes to find a diplomatic solution.

Even so, Middle Eastern officials involved in efforts to de-escalate the tensions had already downgraded their expectations for Friday's meeting following their conversations with Iranian diplomats. They said they expected it to be an exchange of ideas with few concrete outcomes, and some were resigned to what appeared to be an inevitable military confrontation.

Middle East power brokers Turkey, Qatar and Egypt attempting to mediate in the crisis have little idea what each side truly wants out of the talks, or whether a viable path to an agreement really exists, the Middle Eastern officials said Wednesday.

"This is a novel situation, partly because the strategic uncertainty and inconsistency of the U.S. has magnifying consequences in terms of what Iran is deciding to do," Eyre said.

Iran may have won a tactical victory by succeeding in moving the talks to Oman -- a more discreet location where Iranian officials will face less cajoling by big regional powers such as Turkey and scrutiny from the world's media in Istanbul.

"Iran is seeking to shift the venue, because it viewed the multilateral, open format in Türkiye as a high-risk, low-reward proposition," said Oral Toga, a researcher at the Center for Iranian Studies in Turkey. "This move is a strategic attempt to tilt the terms of negotiation in its favor."

Write to Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com, Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com and Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2026 17:34 ET (22:34 GMT)

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