After months of heightened tension following their war in June 2025 and weeks of escalating mutual threats, Iran and the United States resumed fragile nuclear diplomacy on Friday, as negotiators from both sides held critical mediated talks in Muscat, Oman.
Led by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Special Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, the delegations exchanged views indirectly on the key contentious issue of Tehran’s nuclear programme through Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi.
At the core of the dispute between Tehran and Washington lie deep disagreements over Iran’s nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile capabilities, as well as the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel regional allies.
These major sticking points have pushed the sides into gridlock, with the United States demanding “zero enrichment” and a limitation on Iran’s missile range to 500 kilometres.
Iran has categorically rejected the U.S. conditions, stressing that the right to uranium enrichment under UN verification and its advanced missile programme constitute firm red lines.
Settling dust
This raises the question of what a possible deal between Iran and the United States might look like. Will this new round of talks amount to yet another exercise in agreeing to disagree?
The dust from Friday’s talks is expected to settle within days - if not hours - of them ending.
For now, the talks appear to have helped avert a military standoff. In the medium term, however, prospects for a major breakthrough remain slim if Iran and the United States are unable to exchange concessions and allow diplomacy a chance to prevail.
The US military build-up in the region and Iran’s unveiling of a new ballistic missile “town” keep the Armada v. Catapulta antinomy alive, reinforcing concerns over a looming showdown that could spill over into a wider regional confrontation.
After months of heightened tension following their war in June 2025 and weeks of escalating mutual threats, Iran and the United States resumed fragile...
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A senior Russian military intelligence officer has been rushed to hospital after being shot several times in Moscow, in the latest apparent assassinat...
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed one of its largest ballistic missiles at a newly unveiled underground base on Wednesday...
Iran and the United States opened nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, with Tehran calling the meeting a good start and both sides agreeing to continue di...
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed one of its largest ballistic missiles at a newly unveiled underground base on Wednesday (3 February), just two days ahead of mediated nuclear talks with the United States in Muscat, Oman.
Iran and the United States opened nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, with Tehran calling the meeting a good start and both sides agreeing to continue discussions after returning to their capitals for consultations.
If Fars News Agency is to be believed, Iran's neighbours should be on alert. The agency, which reportedly mirrors the views of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), warned Azerbaijan and Türkiye that if the U.S. and Israel attack Iran, they will become "legitimate targets for Tehran."
In recent years, Abu Dhabi has emerged as a venue for high-stakes diplomacy, hosting sensitive talks on conflicts ranging from Ukraine-Russia to Armenia-Azerbaijan, as the United Arab Emirates positions itself as a neutral platform amid deepening global divisions.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed one of its largest ballistic missiles at a newly unveiled underground base on Wednesday (3 February), just two days ahead of mediated nuclear talks with the United States in Muscat, Oman.
Rivers and reservoirs across Spain and Portugal were on the verge of overflowing on Wednesday as a new weather front pounded the Iberian peninsula, compounding damage from last week's Storm Kristin.
Morocco has evacuated more than 100,000 people from four provinces after heavy rainfall triggered flash floods across several northern regions, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
Winter weather has brought air travel in the German capital to a complete halt, stranding thousands of passengers as severe icing conditions make runways and aircraft unsafe for operation and force authorities to shut down one of Europe’s key transport hubs.
Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians including seven children in Gaza on Wednesday (4 February), health officials said, the latest violence to undermine the nearly four-month-old ceasefire.
The United States has accused Beijing of conducting a covert nuclear test in 2020, adding fresh strain to already fraught relations as Washington presses for a broader arms control treaty to include China as well as Russia.
A senior Russian military intelligence officer has been rushed to hospital after being shot several times in Moscow, in the latest apparent assassination attempt targeting the country’s top brass since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Iran and the United States opened nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, with Tehran calling the meeting a good start and both sides agreeing to continue discussions after returning to their capitals for consultations.
An attacker opened fire at the gates of a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Islamabad on Friday before detonating a suicide bomb that killed at least 31 people in the deadliest assault of its kind in the capital in more than ten years.
Eight vehicles caught fire on Friday (6 February) outside a wholesale fish market in Hong Kong, sending thick black smoke over parts of the Kowloon peninsula, before firefighters brought the blaze under control, authorities said.
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