Iran looks poised to re-enter nuclear talks with the US this week amid a diplomatic rush to avert conflict.
Reports in US and Iranian media said negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme could start in the coming few days. Axios said a meeting between Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US special envoy Steve Witkoff was expected in Istanbul on Friday.
Iran's semi-official news agency Tasnim, quoting a source, named the same two men as likely to be involved in talks. Fars news agency also quoted a government source as saying that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian “has ordered the initiation of nuclear negotiations with the US”.
Earlier on Monday, Foreign Ministry representative Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran is examining details of diplomatic processes to manage relations with the US. Mr Baghaei told a press conference that Tehran hoped for results soon.
The news comes as an Israeli source told The National that Mr Witkoff, who led the American negotiating team in talks with Iran last year, will arrive in Israel on Tuesday. Israel's military chief was reportedly in the US for high-level meetings on Iran over the weekend.
Tension has been simmering for weeks as US President Donald Trump hints at a possible second military operation against Iran, months after he ordered the bombing of nuclear sites.
But amid a military build-up by the US Navy near Iran, Mr Trump told reporters last week that Tehran was “seriously talking” with Washington.
“Regional countries are the go-between for messages that have been exchanged. Various points have been exchanged and we are currently deciding and examining the details of each diplomatic process that we hope will bring results in the coming days,” Mr Baghaei said.
Mr Araghchi told CNN on Sunday that he was “confident” of reaching a deal, saying friendly countries in the region were brokering “fruitful” talks with the US.
Mr Trump initially threatened to use military force against Iran as reports emerged of a crackdown on anti-government protests in the country last month. Activists outside the country put the death toll so far at about 6,500 people, most of them protesters. They are investigating reports of thousands more killings.
Mr Trump appeared to back down from the use of military force after receiving assurances that protesters would not be executed in Iran. The USS Abraham Lincoln strike group arrived in the Middle East in the middle of last week and renewed threats of action unless Iran return to negotiations over a nuclear deal were made.
On Friday, he said Iran does “want to make a deal”.
Iran has taken a tough stance as the threat of US strikes looms, saying it would respond to a new US attack with “all-out war”.
Mr Trump has left the door open for diplomacy but Iran appears to have established some non-negotiables, including the dismantling of its ballistic missile programme. Washington is unlikely to be satisfied with that red line.
The US and Tehran held several rounds of talks last year over an agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, after the US pulled out of a previous deal in 2018 during Mr Trump’s first term.
But those talks collapsed when Israel attacked Iran in June, unleashing a 12-day war in which the US also struck Iran’s nuclear sites.
