This diplomatic push is occurring against the backdrop of a massive U.S. military buildup in the region that President Donald Trump has threatened to use if Iran doesn\u2019t agree to a nuclear deal. Iranian officials have responded by threatening devastating counterattacks in the event of a U.S. strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. negotiating team is led by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Images of the meeting published in local media also showed Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration first launched talks aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran last year. Negotiators met in Oman and Italy, but failed to secure measurable progress. The Israeli attacks that launched the 12-day war upended the diplomatic effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump withdrew the U.S.<\/a> from the 2015 deal to limit Iran\u2019s nuclear program in May 2018, during his first term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue of Iranian nuclear enrichment emerged as the central stumbling block during talks last year. Iran refused to agree to zero enrichment, and Trump administration officials made contradictory statements on whether Tehran would be allowed enrichment capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This time, Iran appears more willing to compromise on the issue of nuclear enrichment, according to a Western diplomat briefed on the issue. Tehran may be willing to agree to a years-long pause on enrichment, but it\u2019s unclear if that will satisfy the Trump administration, the diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing on Thursday<\/a> that the U.S. president\u2019s goal was to see Iran with \u201czero nuclear capability.\u201d It remains unclear how that minimum threshold is defined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tehran has consistently denied that its nuclear enrichment is designed for weapons production and said that, along with all sovereign countries, it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iran enters the current round of talks at its weakest point in decades. The country\u2019s military suffered staggering losses to Israel during the 12-day war, and its nuclear program was severely damagedby U.S. airstrikes in June. Iran was subsequently plunged into crisis last month by massive protests that the country\u2019s security forces responded to with deadly force, killing thousands of people<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Trump threatened strikes in support of Iranian protesters last month, Iran vowed punishing retaliation against U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf. Despite its military losses to Israel during the 12-day war, Iran\u2019s missile arsenal remains the largest in the region<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Days before the talks in Oman, tensions appeared to spike. U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone<\/a> approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, warned that \u201cIran\u2019s unnecessary aggression near U.S. forces, regional partners and commercial vessels increases risks of collision, miscalculation and regional destabilization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. military buildup includes dozens of aircraft at bases operating near Iran and about 12 warships in or near the Middle East, according to Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile these negotiations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian regime that the president has many options at his disposal aside from diplomacy as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world,\u201d said Leavitt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/dgsblk5mlqs826.archive.ph\/iZUG5\/f9a1b50fee291f50ba875e955daa4e04d21bbf0e.jpg\")