Iran says it halted indirect talks with US in Oman as it waits for Israeli retaliation

Iran has stopped indirect talks with the United States in Oman as tensions remain high over a possible Israeli retaliatory strike on the Islamic Republic over its missile attack two weeks ago, Tehran’s foreign minister says.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the comment to Iranian state media while in Muscat, Oman. The sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has long been an interlocutor between Iran and the US, particularly in the secret talks that birthed Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“For the time being, the Muscat process is stopped because of special situation in the region,” Araghchi says, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “We do not see any ground for the talks until we can pass the current crisis.”

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran under new President Masoud Pezeshkian has been signaling it wants to negotiate with the US for sanctions relief. Since then-president Donald Trump pulled America out of the nuclear accord, Tehran has begun enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels and increasing the size of its stockpile. However, US intelligence agencies and officials insist Iran has not begun an effort to build a nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile, Israel has threatened a major retaliatory strike over Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month, the second-such direct assault on Israel by Iran since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.