Iran announced on the evening of February 4 that it will meet U.S. representatives in Muscat on February 6 for negotiations focused on its nuclear programme. Tehran’s foreign minister framed the talks as narrowly confined to nuclear issues, while U.S. commentary has signalled that Washington wants the discussions to also address Iran’s ballistic missile development.
The disagreement over the agenda is immediate and consequential. Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran’s missile programme is "not on the table," warning that insisting on non-nuclear topics could jeopardise the negotiations. Tehran says it is prepared to show flexibility on uranium enrichment so long as enrichment is restricted to peaceful uses, and rejects preconditions that would foreclose talks.
Iran’s military has been underscoring its deterrent posture. The head of the armed forces’ general staff, Major General Mousavi, visited an underground missile site and said Iran has upgraded its missile capabilities and stands ready to respond to any adversary. He portrayed Iran’s doctrine as having shifted from defensive to offensive after last year’s intense exchanges with Israel, describing a willingness to deliver "destructive" blows against foes.
The diplomatic tiff over scope reflects a larger strategic impasse. Washington has set what the Chinese report characterises as three demands on Iran’s nuclear behaviour — no manufacture of nuclear weapons, no enrichment, and no possession of enriched uranium — while Tehran insists it has never sought nuclear arms and retains the right to peaceful nuclear activity. U.S. public statements, including by influential figures in Washington, have linked any nuclear talks to broader security concerns such as ballistic missiles, raising the prospect that the two sides will arrive at Muscat with fundamentally different expectations.
The setting for these talks is a region still rattled by last year’s confrontations: Israeli air strikes across Iran in June 2025, Iranian missile and drone strikes on Israeli targets, U.S. strikes on Iranian facilities, and a retaliatory Iranian attack on a U.S. base in Qatar. Oman’s capital, Muscat, has again been chosen as neutral ground — a reminder of the limited diplomatic channels that remain open even amid high tensions.
If the meeting succeeds, it will require either a narrow, test-focused accord that separates nuclear issues from other security disputes, or an agreed process for addressing linked concerns without collapsing negotiations at the outset. If it fails, the result could be further escalation: a diplomatic impasse would leave military deterrence and regional proxy dynamics as the primary tools for both sides, increasing the risk of miscalculation in a volatile neighbourhood.