OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
1:03 PM – Friday, May 2, 2025
Oman’s government, which has been mediating discussions between the two parties, has announced that the United States and Iran have canceled their planned talks this weekend regarding Tehran’s nuclear program.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi announced on X on Thursday that a fourth round of talks had been planned for Saturday in Rome, but that it had been postponed for “logistical reasons.”
“New dates will be announced when mutually agreed,” added al-Busaidi, who did not elaborate on the “logistical reasons.”
The meeting was postponed “at the request of Oman’s foreign minister,” according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, while an unnamed source told the Associated Press that Washington, D.C., “had never confirmed its participation” in Saturday’s scheduled talks — though it was anticipating talks “in the near future.”
Additionally, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened Iran on Wednesday night for continuing to back Yemen’s Islamist Houthi rebels — whose attacks on ships in the Red Sea have caught the U.S. Navy’s notice, prompting fears and strategizing from the administration.
“Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,” Hegseth proclaimed on X. “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.”
Soon after, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei responded back to Hegseth.
“The responsibility for the consequences and destructive effects of the contradictory behavior and provocative statements of American officials regarding Iran will lie with the American side,” Baghaei stated.
The United States and Iran have engaged in three rounds of indirect talks—two held in Muscat, the capital of Oman, and a third at the Omani embassy in Rome. The goal of the negotiations is to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear program, which U.S. officials suspect is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
President Trump has repeatedly stated that military action is a possibility if diplomatic efforts do not succeed.
“I’m not asking for much … but they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” the 47th president told reporters on April 9th. “If it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will, obviously, be … the leader of that. No one leads us. We do what we want.”
The negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have been spearheaded by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
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