Financial Times:

By Andrew England in London and John Paul Rathbone in Istanbul

Crucial talks between the US and Iran appear set to be held in Oman as Tehran seeks to ensure the scope of its negotiations with the Trump administration is limited solely to its nuclear programme.

The talks scheduled for Friday, which come as US President Donald Trump weighs possible military options against the Islamic republic, were initially expected to be held in Istanbul with regional states attending as observers.

But people briefed on the talks said Tehran wanted the discussions to take place in Muscat, with just the US attending. The request signalled that Iran wants the format to mirror those of its negotiations with the US last year, which focused on Iran’s nuclear programme and not the broader range of issues, such as the future of its ballistic missile arsenal, that Washington has previously demanded.

“Iranians want to change the agenda, participants and the venue of the meeting,” one of the people said. They “want to show that this is a new round of previous nuclear talks in Oman”.

Another person briefed on the talks said the US had agreed to move the negotiations to Muscat. The White House on Tuesday said the talks were still scheduled for Friday, but did not give further details.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were expected to attend alongside Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, but diplomats have previously said the details were still being finalised.

Witkoff and Araghchi held multiple rounds of indirect discussions with Iran last year in the Omani capital before Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June, only 48 hours before a sixth round of talks. The US briefly joined Israel’s assault to bomb Iran’s main nuclear facilities.

Arab and Muslim powers have in recent weeks intensified efforts to get the two sides to the negotiating table after Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Iran following the Islamic regime’s brutal crackdown on protests in which thousands of people were killed.

The US has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and additional warplanes and air-defence systems to the region in recent weeks.

In a sign of the heightened tensions, an American fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone on Tuesday that the US military said “aggressively approached” the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, quoted an unnamed official as saying the drone was carrying out a “routine and lawful” reconnaissance mission.

In a separate incident the same day, the guards’ naval forces threatened to board and seize a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

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