The foreign minister of Oman has announced that a fourth round of talks with the United States about Iran’s nuclear programme had been postponed.
Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi made the announcement on the social media platform X on Thursday, just days before the talks were expected to begin in Rome.
“For logistical reasons we are rescheduling the US Iran meeting provisionally planned for Saturday May 3rd,” he wrote. “New dates will be announced when mutually agreed.”
Al-Busaidi had previously mediated three rounds of talks between Iran and the US. The first took place in Oman’s capital of Moscat on April 12, with a follow-up in Rome the following weekend. A third round of negotations returned to Moscat on April 26, with the US touting “progress” towards a nuclear deal.
But tensions between the Iranian and US governments have been simmering beneath the near-weekly meetings.
The administration of President Donald Trump has said its aim is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, though Tehran has long denied armament as a goal. It frames its nuclear programme as a civilian energy project.
The Trump White House has hinted its goals may extend further, though, to the total dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. In mid-April, US special envoy Steve Witkoff released a statement saying that “Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program” as part of a final deal.
Earlier on Thursday, before the postponement was announced, Iran accused the US of issuing “contradictory behaviour and provocative statements” about the nuclear negotiations.
And on Wednesday, the US made a series of aggressive moves as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, heightening the already uneasy relations.
First, the US Department of State sanctioned seven entities involved in the trade of Iranian oil products, on the basis that the proceeds “support its terrorist activities and proxies”. Then, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered his own remarks, warning that Iranian support of the Houthis, a Yemen-based armed group, could result in US retaliation.
“Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,” Hegseth wrote on social media on Wednesday.
“You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.”
Despite the heated rhetoric, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Thursday’s postponement came “at the request of Oman’s foreign minister”. Iranian spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also emphasised that his country was committed to achieving “a fair and lasting agreement” with the US.
Still, a senior official with the Iranian government told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity that the recent US actions were tied to the delay.
“US sanctions on Iran during the nuclear talks are not helping the sides to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomacy,” the official told Reuters. “Depending on the US approach, the date of the next round of talks will be announced.”
Other media reports, meanwhile, indicate that the US was not completely on board with the prospects of renewed talks in Rome this weekend.
An anonymous source told The Associated Press that the US “had never confirmed its participation” in this weekend’s anticipated talks, but that further negotiations were expected “in the near future”.
Successive US administrations have sought to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. One recent effort culminated with a 2015 agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The multilateral agreement, forged during the administration of US President Barack Obama, created a framework for Iran to receive relief from international sanctions, in exchange for reducing its uranium enrichment and submitting to inspections of its nuclear facilities.
But when Trump succeeded Obama as US president, he set into motion plans to withdraw the US from the JCPOA in 2018, causing the deal to crumble.
Instead, during his first term as president from 2017 to 2021, Trump pursued a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, a strategy he has returned to since taking office a second time in January.
When Trump launched a new round of US attacks against the Houthis in March, he warned he held Iran responsible for Houthi strikes against ships in the Red Sea — and he hinted he would consider using force against that country as a result.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump wrote on March 17.
More recently, the US president threatened military action could also be an outcome if a nuclear deal were not reached.
In an interview with Time Magazine, published on April 25, Trump addressed the pressure from the US’s ally Israel to confront Iran militarily, saying he had not ruled it out.
“It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said at one point. “Ultimately, I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”
He later added, “If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack,” seemingly referring to military intervention.
But the US president emphasised he was optimistic that the talks with Iran would pan out. He even expressed willingness to meet with Iran’s leadership personally.
“I think that we’re going to make a deal with Iran. I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” he said. “Nobody else could do that.”