Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Iran said on Friday it was giving nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday "a genuine chance", after President Donald Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed.
Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, which has mediated between the West and Tehran before.
The arrival in the White House of Trump, who in his first term withdrew the U.S. from a big-power deal with Tehran, has again brought a tougher approach to a Middle Eastern power whose nuclear program Washington's ally Israel sees as an existential threat.
At the same time, Tehran and its proxies have been weakened by the military offensives that Israel has launched across the region, including into Iran, after being attacked from Gaza by the Palestinian terror group Hamas in October 2023.
Iran's foreign ministry said on Friday that the U.S. should value Tehran's decision to engage in talks despite Washington's "prevailing confrontational hoopla".
"We intend to assess the other side's intent and resolve this Saturday," spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei posted on X. "In earnest and with candid vigilance, we are giving diplomacy a genuine chance."
Iran had rejected direct negotiations with Washington before Trump announced on March 30: "If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."
Since Trump quit the 2015 JCPOA deal backed by his predecessor Barack Obama, in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of sanctions, Tehran has enriched a stockpile of uranium sufficient to produce nuclear warheads relatively quickly.
Iran says its program is purely for legitimate, peaceful purposes but the West says it goes far beyond any civilian requirements, and suspects Tehran of building a nuclear weapon.
U.S. air attacks on Yemen's Houthis, who are aligned with Iran and have attacked international shipping lanes in the Red Sea in support of Hamas, have fuelled speculation that Washington may be preparing to attack Iran.
Iran's state media said the talks would be led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, with the intermediation of Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.