US seeks to 'expand scope' of talks with Iran to include its defense capabilities: Report

TEHRAN, Iran

The United States is seeking to "expand the scope of negotiations" with Iran to include its defense capabilities, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported Wednesday, citing a source.

The report cited a “knowledgeable source” who referred to the US’s “excessive demands” in the negotiation process.

The source said that Iran entered the talks “with a transparent and clear approach,” considering the framework of negotiations to be "strictly limited to nuclear issues."

But the American side attempted to broaden the scope of the talks to areas “beyond prior commitments and agreements,” the report cited the source as saying.

According to the US news outlet Axios, Washington told Tehran on Wednesday that it will not agree to demands to change the location or format of the talks, which are scheduled for Friday.

“We told them it is this or nothing, and they said, 'Ok, then nothing,'” the news outlet quoted an unnamed US official as saying.

Earlier, Iranian media reported that Iran and the US were slated to hold indirect negotiations in Oman’s capital Muscat on Friday, with a focus on nuclear-related issues.

Before Muscat, Istanbul had been proposed as the venue following Türkiye’s successful intervention to help ease tensions between the two countries.

Axios quoted the official as saying that if the Iranians are willing to return to the original format for talks, the US is ready to meet this week or next.

However, the Mehr report cited a source saying that Washington seeks to “raise issues outside the nuclear framework, including defense matters.”

“These demands are not only unrelated to the nuclear file but are directly tied to national security and the country’s deterrent capability and are fundamentally non-negotiable,” the unnamed source said.

He added that Iran is “ready to negotiate within a defined framework based on mutual respect on nuclear matters” but noted that the “insistence on excessive demands and raising issues beyond the agreement is the main factor behind any potential deadlock.”

Iran has insisted that its ballistic missile program is not subject to negotiation and that talks with the US must solely focus on the country’s nuclear program.

It has also requested that Oman serve as the venue, as it did before the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June last year stalled diplomatic efforts mediated by the Omani government.