Proposal for Iran Talks Could Be in Trouble

Talks between Iran and the United States will take place Friday in Oman, Iranian media reported Wednesday—but the announcement may have been premature. Axios, citing "two US officials," reports that Istanbul had been the agreed upon venue for the talks, with other Middle Eastern countries observing, and the US has told Iran that it won't agree to proposals to change the location and format. "We told them it is this or nothing, and they said, 'OK, then nothing,'" one of the sources says.

• The semiofficial ISNA and Tasnim news agencies and the Student News Network said Wednesday that the talks would take place in Oman, though the sultanate did not confirm it, the AP reports. Oman has hosted multiple rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and the US in the past.

• "We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to in Turkey that was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, per the Times of Israel. "I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that, so that's still being worked through."
• Tensions between the countries remain high following Tehran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month. President Trump has previously suggested the US might use force against Iran in response to its crackdown on protesters, and is pushing Tehran for a deal to constrain its nuclear program.
• "At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage, and has always been prepared to engage with Iran," Rubio said, but for talks to "actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles. That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region. That includes the nuclear program. And that includes the treatment of their own people."
• Axios reports that the Iranian side said Tuesday that they will only agree to bilateral talks, strictly focused on the nuclear issue.
• On Tuesday, Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian said he had instructed the foreign minister to "pursue fair and equitable negotiations" with the US, in the first clear sign from Tehran it wants to try to negotiate.
• On the same day, a US Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that approached an American aircraft carrier. Iranian fast boats from its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also tried to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Navy said. Iran did not immediately acknowledge either incident, which strained but apparently did not completely derail hopes for talks with the US.
• CNBC reports that crude oil prices jumped 3% Wednesday after Axios reported that plans for talks could be collapsing.