US and Iran to begin high-stakes talks over nuclear programme

The US and Iran are due to start high-stakes talks in Oman over Tehran’s nuclear programme, seen as one of the last chances to prevent a new US attack. These negotiations are the first since the US struck Iranian nuclear targets in June, joining in the final stages of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign.

Washington wants to expand the talks to cover Iran’s ballistic missiles, support for armed groups around the region and “treatment of their own people”, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Wednesday. After days of speculation, Iranian negotiators are satisfied that only the nuclear dispute will be discussed, at least initially, even as the US has been building up its naval presence in the region and Donald Trump has repeatedly warned he will strike Iran militarily from the US carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln if no progress is made.

Oman