U.S., Iran hold indirect but ‘useful’ nuclear talks in Oman

U.S. and Iranian delegates held delicate talks through Omani intermediaries Friday, Oman’s foreign affairs minister said, days after a U.S. fighter pilot shot down an Iranian drone.

The American delegation, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the Iranian officials were meeting primarily to negotiate the terms of Iran’s nuclear program.

“It was useful to clarify both Iranian and American thinking and identify areas for possible progress,” said Badr al-Busaidi, Oman’s minister of foreign affairs, who has moderated previous talks in the region. “We aim to reconvene in due course, with the results to be considered carefully in Tehran and Washington.”

The Trump administration, however, immediately issued new sanctions against “15 entities, two individuals, and 14 shadow fleet vessels connected to the illicit trade in Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

The meeting in Oman came after several Arab nations put pressure on the Trump administration to continue talks as Trump ramped up threats of a military strike and deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group to the Arabian Sea.

An F-35 pilot from the Lincoln shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the carrier on Tuesday, according to U.S. Central Command.

Hours later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces threatened to board and seize a U.S. merchant vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz, backing off when the U.S. sent air support and a destroyer to escort the tanker, Central Command said.

Originally scheduled to take place in Turkey, the meeting was eventually moved to Oman at the request of Iranian delegates, to keep the focus on conversations on its nuclear program, and not its ballistic missile stockpile or other regional proxy issues.

Trump, who has called for an end to the Iranian regime, has publicly clashed in recent weeks with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, each threatening the other with military action.

The animosity between the countries burgeoned amid widespread protests against Iran’s worsening economic crisis and the country’s authoritarian leadership, which a military crackdown has since quelled. The U.S. government issued a security alert last month, directing Americans to leave Iran by land immediately. The British embassy in Tehran temporarily closed around the same time and is now operating remotely.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which cross-checks collected data with people on the ground, said Friday that more than 2,400 protesters in Iran died in the protests, including a dozen children, along with nearly 150 security forces and government supporters. More than 18,000 people have been arrested, the group said. MS NOW has not verified these figures.

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Julia Jester contributed to this report.