U.S.-Iran nuclear talks are set to begin in Oman. Here's what to know.
Iran and the United States will hold talks in the sultanate of Oman on Saturday in an attempt to jump-start negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Even before the talks, however, there was a dispute over just how the negotiations would go. President Trump said they would be "direct talks," and he warned that Iran would "be in great danger" if the negotiations don't go well.
Hours later, however, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi confirmed talks were set for Saturday, in Oman, but referred to them as "indirect high-level talks" that would be carried out through a mediator.
The difference may seem small, but it matters. Indirect talks have made no progress since Mr. Trump, during his first term, unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. He immediately imposed new sanctions on Iran as part of his "maximum pressure" campaign targeting the country.
He has revived that campaign, and left the threat of military action against Iran on the table, while emphasizing that he believes a new deal could be reached.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own, alluding to the presence of thousands of American forces across the Middle East who are within range of Iran's rockets.
Here's what to know about a recent letter Mr. Trump sent to Khamenei threatening military action if Iran doesn't engage in talks, Iran's growing nuclear program, and the tension that has stalked relations between Tehran and Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Why did Mr. Trump write to Iran to demand talks now?
Mr. Trump sent a letter to Khamenei on March 5, then gave a television interview the next day in which he acknowledged sending it. He said: "I've written them a letter saying, 'I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing.'"
Since returning to the White House, the president has pushed for talks with Iran while ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a military strike by Israel or the U.S. could target Iranian nuclear sites.
A previous letter from Mr. Trump during his first term drew an angry retort from the supreme leader. But Mr. Trump's letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term led to face-to-face meetings, though no deals to limit Pyongyang's atomic weapons, and North Korea continued developing its missile program, now boasting rockets theoretically capable of reaching the continental U.S.
How has Iran reacted?
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected holding direct negotiations with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.
"We don't avoid talks; it's the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far," Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. "They must prove that they can build trust."
Khamenei seemingly reacted to comments by Mr. Trump renewing his threat of military action.
"They threaten to commit acts of mischief, but we are not entirely certain that such actions will take place," the supreme leader said. "We do not consider it highly likely that trouble will come from the outside. However, if it does, they will undoubtedly face a strong retaliatory strike."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei went further.
"An open threat of 'bombing' by a Head of State against Iran is a shocking affront to the very essence of International Peace and Security," he wrote on the social platform X. "Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The US can choose the course...; and concede to CONSEQUENCES."
U.S. and Iran bracing for war?
The state-owned Tehran Times newspaper, without citing a source, claimed that Iran had "readied missiles with the capability to strike U.S.-related positions."
That's as the U.S. has stationed stealth B-2 bombers in Diego Garcia within striking distance of both Iran and Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, which America has been bombing intensely since March 15.
While much of the U.S. military posturing could be attributed to the stepped-up operations against the Houthis, all the American hardware moved in the region also serves as a show of force as negotiations with Iran commence.
A U.S. official told CBS News that by mid-April, there will be two U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups operating inside the U.S. Central Command's region of responsibility, which includes the Persian Gulf, Iran, Yemen and the entire Middle East. CBS News national security correspondent Charlie D'Agata said it will mark the second time in six months that two Navy carrier strike groups will been stationed in the region — an area that typically sees just one.
D'Agata noted also that as many as six American B-2 Stealth Bombers have been deployed to the joint U.S.-British base on Diego Garcia, a strategic island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced last week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had "ordered the deployment of additional squadrons and other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities."
Iran's nuclear advances
Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.
Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 661 pounds. The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's program put its stockpile at 18,286 pounds as it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.
U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, has warned in a televised interview that his country has the capability to build nuclear weapons, but it is not pursuing it and has no problem with the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspections. However, he said if the U.S. or Israel were to attack Iran over the issue, the country would have no choice but to move toward nuclear weapon development.
"If you make a mistake regarding Iran's nuclear issue, you will force Iran to take that path, because it must defend itself," he said.
Both Israel and the United States have warned they will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
A brief history of U.S.-Iran relations
Iran was once one of the U.S.'s top allies in the Mideast under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah's rule.
But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule. The Islamic Revolution followed, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran's enduring theocratic government.
Later that year, university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah's extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed.
The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s saw the U.S. back Saddam Hussein. The "Tanker War" during that conflict saw the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, while the U.S. later shot down an Iranian commercial airliner.
Iran and the U.S. have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, with relations hitting a high point under then-President Barack Obama when Tehran made the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. But Mr. Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, sparking a new round of tension in the Mideast that persists today.
