The US and Iran are set to hold diplomatic talks in Istanbul on Friday as President Donald Trump weighs a possible military strike on the Islamic Republic, four senior Middle East diplomats and a US official told NBC News.
Other countries in the region are also expected to participate in the talks, the sources said.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would be part of the delegations, according to four of the sources.
The Trump administration has been boosting pressure on Iran to enter negotiations over its nuclear programme.
American media outlet Axios reports that US-Iran nuclear talks are set to take place in Turkey later this week.
It cited multiple sources in the story published on Monday.
They said President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is slated to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Istanbul on Friday, and they are planning to discuss a possible nuclear deal.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will join, along with the foreign ministers of several Arab and Muslim countries including Pakistan.
Iran is ready to negotiate with the US and is optimistic that a deal can be reached if the goal is to get to a place where the country is devoid of nuclear weapons, two government officials in the Islamic Republic told NBC News on Monday.
NBC News reached out to the White House and the State Department, as well as the individual embassies of the Middle Eastern countries that may participate in the talks, who did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Three of the Middle East diplomats who discussed the possible meeting cautioned that details are still being arranged and that they could change.
“It’s not set in stone,” one of the diplomats said. A US official said that the parties are working toward setting up the meeting in Istanbul as soon as Friday but that the details have not been finalized.
Two senior Middle East diplomats said the negotiations are being led by Turkey and backed by Qatar and Egypt.
Another senior Middle East diplomat said foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Pakistan and Oman have also been invited.
This diplomat said the talks could address Iran’s nuclear programme and US demands for curbs on Iran’s missile programme.
If the discussions between the US and Iran take place Friday, it would mark the end of a busy week for Witkoff, who is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Tuesday and travel to Abu Dhabi for meetings with Ukrainian and Russian delegations Wednesday and Thursday, according to two US officials.
Iran prefers diplamcy
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the start of nuclear talks with the United States, local media said, as his counterpart Donald Trump threatened “bad things” if no deal with the Islamic republic was struck.
Following the Iranian authorities’ deadly response to anti-government protests that peaked last month, the US president has threatened military action and ordered the dispatch of an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East.
Trump has maintained he is hopeful that Washington will “work something out” with Iran but also warned on Monday that “bad things would happen” if no deal is reached.
Tehran has insisted it wants diplomacy, while vowing an unbridled response to any aggression.
“President Pezeshkian has ordered the opening of talks with the United States” on Iran’s nuclear programme, the Fars news agency reported on Monday, citing an unnamed government source. The report was also carried by the government newspaper Iran and the reformist daily Shargh.
A meeting is likely to take place in Turkey on Friday, following interventions by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Oman, an Arab official told AFP on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
US news site Axios cited two unnamed sources as saying Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Istanbul to discuss a possible deal on the nuclear issue.
Trump had warned “time is running out” for Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb, a claim Tehran has repeatedly denied.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Araghchi said: “President Trump said no nuclear weapons, and we fully agree. We fully agree with that.
That could be a very good deal,” adding that, “in return, we expect sanctions lifting”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said earlier on Monday that Tehran was working on a method and framework for negotiations that would be ready in the coming days, with messages between the two sides relayed through regional players.
‘Police the world’
Turkey has led a diplomatic push to defuse tensions, with Araghchi visiting Istanbul last week and speaking with other regional counterparts, including in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Jordan’s top diplomat, Ayman Safadi, assured Araghchi on Monday that the kingdom would “not be a battleground in any regional conflict or a launching pad for any military action against Iran”.
Iranian authorities, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have warned any US attack would trigger a “regional war”.
In Tehran, pensioner Ali Hamidi told AFP he was a veteran and “not afraid of war”, but that “America should mind its own business, why does it want to police the world?”
But, the 68-year-old added, “Iranian officials are also at fault for not providing for the people.
The economic troubles are back-breaking… The officials should do something tangible, not just talk.”
The protests were sparked in late December by economic strain and exploded in size and intensity over several days in early January.
Authorities have said the protests were “riots” inflamed by its arch-foes the United States and Israel, with Khamenei likening them to a “coup” attempt.
Ambassadors summoned
Tehran has acknowledged thousands of deaths during the protests, and on Sunday the presidency published the names of 2,986 people out of the 3,117 whom authorities said were killed in the unrest.
Authorities insist most were members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, attributing the violence to “terrorist acts”.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based NGO, said it has confirmed 6,854 deaths, mostly protesters killed by security forces, with other rights groups warning the figure is likely far higher.
Young Iranian Selina, who would not give her full name, travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan seeking some relief from “living in fear”.
“It’s not safe for us” in Iran, the 25-year-old told AFP.
“We don’t even dare to go out after 6:00 pm because soldiers are everywhere.”
The crackdown prompted the European Union to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, with Iranian lawmakers retaliating on Sunday by slapping the same designation on European armies.
The EU also issued fresh sanctions on Iranian officials, including the interior minister, a move echoed on Monday by Britain, which announced sanctions on 10 individuals over the “brutality against protesters”.
Baqaei said Monday the foreign ministry had summoned all the EU member state ambassadors in Tehran over the designation, and that other responses were to come.
Iranian state television also announced four foreigners had been arrested in Tehran for “participation in riots”, without specifying their nationalities.
Authorities have continued to announce arrests, with rights groups estimating at least 40,000 people have been detained over the protests.
