President Donald Trump warned Monday that Iran must give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons or face severe consequences, potentially including a military strike on its nuclear facilities.
"Of course it does," Trump said when asked if a potential response could include strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
"I think they're tapping us along," Trump told reporters after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Oman on Saturday with a senior Iranian official.
Both Iran and the United States said on Saturday that they held "positive" and "constructive" talks in Oman. A second round is scheduled for Saturday, and a source briefed on the planning said the meeting was likely to be held in Rome.
The source, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions are aimed at exploring what is possible, including a broad framework of what a potential deal would look like.
"Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon," Trump said.
Asked if U.S. options for a response include a military strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities, Trump said: "Of course it does."
Trump said the Iranians need to move fast to avoid a harsh response because "they're fairly close" to developing a nuclear weapon.
The U.S. and Iran held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden's term, but they made little, if any, progress. The last known direct negotiations between the two governments were under then-President Barack Obama, who spearheaded the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Russia this week ahead of a planned second round of talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at resolving Iran's decades-long nuclear stand-off with the West.
Araqchi and U.S. President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oman on Saturday, during which Omani envoy Badr al-Busaidi shuttled between the two delegations sitting in different rooms at his palace in Muscat.
Both sides described the talks in Oman as "positive," although a senior Iranian official told Reuters the meeting "was only aimed at setting the terms of possible future negotiations."
Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italy had agreed to host the talks' second round, and Iraq's state news agency said Araqchi told his Iraqi counterpart that talks would be held "soon" in the Italian capital under Omani mediation.
Tehran has approached the talks warily, doubting the likelihood of an agreement and suspicious of Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran if there is no deal.
Washington aims to halt Tehran's sensitive uranium enrichment work - regarded by the United States, Israel and European powers as a path to nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for civilian energy production.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Araqchi will "discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks" with Russian officials.
Moscow, a party to Iran's 2015 nuclear pact, has supported Tehran's right to have a civilian nuclear program.
