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Iran FM Says Nuclear Talks With US Still On For Oman, Contradicting Earlier Reports

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by Tyler Durden
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Update(1515ET): And now a reversal, after hours ago Axios reported that talks for Oman were canceled, as the two sides couldn't come to agreement as to the scope of talks. But now Iran's foreign minister has contradicted this report...

IRAN'S ARACHCHI CONFIRMS NUCLEAR TALKS WITH US IN OMAN FRIDAY

Axios itself is now reporting the opposite of its initial headline...

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Update(1235ET): Oil is spiking on this breaking headline that the White House has nuked the Iran nuclear talks:

THE NUCLEAR TALKS WERE CANCELED ON FRIDAY DUE TO THE IRANIANS' REFUSAL TO ENGAGE IN NON-NUCLEAR ISSUES- AXIOS REPORTER

"The U.S. told Iran on Wednesday that it will not agree to Tehran's demands to change the location and format of talks planned for Friday, two U.S. officials told Axios."

And more per the breaking Axios report:

  • The official said that if the Iranians are willing to go back to the original format, the U.S. is ready to meet this week or next week.
  • "We want to reach a real deal quickly or people will look at other options," the senior official said, alluding to Trump's repeated threats of military action.

Trump officials are reportedly insisting that Iran be stripped of any missile range capable of striking Israel. Israel, meanwhile, would retain its full missile arsenal - including the undeclared nuclear weapons that everyone in the world knows about - capable of hitting Iran.

Also the US wanted to talk about Iran's support to proxies in the region, but for Tehran anything outside the nuclear domain has remained a non-starter.

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Trump had kicked off the week by warning Iran that "bad things" would probably happen if a deal could not be reached. "We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones - the biggest and the best - and we have talks going on with Iran and we’ll see how it all works out," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If we can work something out, that would be great and if we can’t, probably bad things would happen."

"I'd like to see a deal negotiated. I don’t know that that’s going to happen," he added. So far, Iran seems a willing participant, though at this point the reality is it has little to lose by risking such direct engagement.

via AFP

The only thing which has remained up in the air is the venue. Initially widespread reports said the talks would be hosted by Turkey in Istanbul, but now the sides have their sights set on Oman.

Axios writes that these changes threaten to derail the talks before they even begin. "The Iranians want to move the talks from Istanbul to Oman," the Wednesday report says.

"They also now want to hold them in a bilateral format, only with the U.S., rather than with several Arab and Muslim countries attending as observers," it adds.

But Axios says that the Trump administration has agreed to the request from Tehran to hold the talks in Oman.

The bigger issue is going to be the scope of the talks. Iran is willing to engage on the nuclear issue, but will not negotiate over its ballistic missiles, seen as essential for national security and in any future war with Israel.

"A source with knowledge said that's because the Iranians want to limit the talks to nuclear issues and not discuss things like missiles and proxy groups that are priorities for other countries in the region," states Axios.

On Tuesday Trump had followed with more comments:

"They had a chance to do something a while ago, and it didn’t work out. And we did ‘Midnight Hammer’, I don’t think they want that happening again," he said.

This time, Tehran is warning that it is ready to strike back hard if attacked, even if this means all-out war. It says its military forces and ballistic missiles are on high alert, and also that Tel Aviv will be again targeted in the event of US aggression.

Israel meanwhile is said to be lobbying Washington for regime change in Tehran, but the White House reportedly isn't ready for such a drastic option - also amid reports the Pentagon would need more time to put assets in place.

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