US and Iran make 'significant progress' in Oman-mediated talks

The talks took place as the US continued its largest military buildup in the Middle East in decades.

The US and Iranian delegations held a morning session at the Omani ambassador's residence amid tight security, before pausing to hold consultations with their respective capitals.

AFP journalists saw convoys of cars belonging to US and Iranian diplomatic missions arriving back at the residence of Oman's ambassador before 1700 GMT, following the break of several hours.

Albusaidi said after the morning session that the two sides expressed "unprecedented openness to new and creative ideas and solutions".

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi joined the negotiations, a source close to the talks told AFP, with an Iranian state TV journalist also reporting he was attending.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump's negotiating team would demand that Iran dismantle its three main nuclear sites and hand over all its remaining enriched uranium to the United States.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted ahead of the talks that the Islamic republic was not "at all" seeking a nuclear weapon.

As part of the dramatic US build-up, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, sent to the Mediterranean this week, left a naval base in Crete on Thursday, an AFP photographer said.

Washington currently has more than a dozen warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier -- the USS Abraham Lincoln -- nine destroyers and three other combat ships.

It is rare for there to be two US aircraft carriers, which carry dozens of warplanes and are crewed by thousands of sailors, in the region.

The developments follow massive protests in Iran during which, rights groups say, thousands of demonstrators were killed.

'Sinister nuclear ambitions'

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of "pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions", though Tehran has always insisted its programme is for civilian purposes.

Trump also claimed Tehran had "already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America".

The Iranian foreign ministry called these claims "big lies".

The maximum range of Iran's missiles is 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles), according to what Tehran has publicly disclosed.

However, the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometres -- less than a third of the distance to the continental United States.

Trump's State of the Union accusations in Congress were delivered in the same forum in which then-president George W. Bush laid out the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Ahead of Thursday's talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran must also negotiate on its missile programme, calling Tehran's refusal to discuss ballistic weapons "a big, big problem".

He followed up by saying "the president wants diplomatic solutions".

'People would suffer'

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the Iranian delegation at the talks, had called them "a historic opportunity", adding that a deal was "within reach".

The US was represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka.

The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, then gathered for a second round in Geneva last week.

A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

In January, Tehran launched a mass crackdown on nationwide protests that posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic republic since its inception.

Protests have since resumed around Iranian universities.

Tehran residents who spoke to AFP were divided on what renewed conflict would mean for them.

"There would be famine and people would suffer a lot. People are suffering now, but at least with war, our fate might be clear," 60-year-old homemaker Tayebeh said.