Talks with the U.S. should be pursued to secure national interests as long as "threats and unreasonable expectations" are avoided, President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X on Tuesday (3 February).
“Taking into account demands from friendly regional countries to respond to the U.S. President's suggestion for talks, I instructed the foreign minister to prepare the ground for equitable and fair negotiations, should an atmosphere free of threats and unreasonable expectations arise,” Pezeshkian said.
The comments come amid mounting regional concern that a renewed confrontation between the United States and Iran could destabilise the Middle East.
Speaking at a panel during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said the region did not need another crisis and stressed the importance of a diplomatic solution.
“I think the region has gone through various calamitous confrontations. I don’t think we need another one,” Gargash said.
Against this backdrop, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will meet in Istanbul on Friday (6 February) to revive diplomacy over Iran’s long-running nuclear dispute.
A regional diplomat said representatives from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt will also take part, amid fears of a new regional war.
Tensions have been increasing amid a U.S. naval buildup near Iran, following a violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during the crackdown, has since demanded Tehran make nuclear concessions and sent a flotilla to its coast.
He said last week Iran was "seriously talking", while Tehran's top security official Ali Larijani said arrangements for negotiations were under way.
Asked on Monday (1 February) about the prospect of a deal, Trump told reporters at the White House talks were happening.
"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 ... if we can work something out, that would be great and if we can't, probably bad things would happen."
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had demanded three conditions for resumption of talks: Zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran's ballistic missile programme and ending its support for regional proxies.
Iran has long rejected all three demands as unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers saw the ballistic missile programme, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was considering "the various dimensions and aspects of the talks", adding that "time is of the essence for Iran as it wants the lifting of unjust sanctions sooner".
Türkiye and other regional allies have sought de-escalation.
"Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt, as well as some other countries, will attend the Istanbul meeting. There will be bilateral, trilateral and other meetings," the diplomat said.
A Turkish ruling-party official told Reuters that Tehran and Washington had agreed to re-focus on diplomacy and possible talks this week, in a potential reprieve for potential U.S. strikes.
Ball in Trump’s court
The Iranian official said diplomacy is ongoing and stressed that talks should resume without preconditions. Iran is ready to show flexibility on uranium enrichment, including handing over 400 kg of highly enriched uranium and accepting zero enrichment under a consortium arrangement.
However, he added, for the start of talks, Tehran wanted U.S. military assets moved away from Iran.
"Now the ball is in Trump's court," he said.
Tehran's regional sway has been weakened by Israel's attacks on its proxies from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq, as well as by the ousting of Iran's close ally, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In June last year the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign. Since then, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.
Recent satellite imagery of two of the targeted sites, Isfahan and Natanz, appears to show some repair work since December, with new roofing over two previously destroyed buildings.
No other rebuilding was visible, according to the imagery provided by Planet Labs and reviewed by Reuters.
Washington-based think tank ISIS said satellite images from late January showed construction work on tunnel entrances at Isfahan that could "indicate a preparation for additional military strikes" as was seen ahead of last year's U.S. strikes.
It could also signal the movement of assets from other facilities, it added.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it has called on Iran repeatedly to find out what happened to the highly enriched uranium stock since the June attacks.
Western countries fear Iran's uranium enrichment could yield material for a warhead. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for electricity generation and other civilian uses.
The Iranian sources said Tehran could ship its highly enriched uranium abroad and pause enrichment in a deal that should also include the lifting of economic sanctions.
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The Middle East conflict has entered a new phase, with Israel expanding its operations into southern Lebanon and tensions with Iran escalating. Analysts warn that the collapse of traditional deterrence and rising nuclear risks could trigger a global arms race.
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