Iran and the US will maintain talks within the sultanate of Oman on Saturday in an try and jump-start negotiations over Tehran’s quickly advancing nuclear program.
President Donald Trump insists they’ll be direct negotiations. Nonetheless, Iran’s International Minister Abbas Araghchi says he’ll be talking not directly via a mediator to U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
Whatever the format, the talks symbolize a milestone within the fraught relations between the 2 nations over Iran’s program, which is enriching uranium near weapons-grade ranges.
Here is a timeline of the tensions between the 2 international locations over Iran’s atomic program.
Early days
1967 — Iran takes possession of its Tehran Analysis Reactor beneath America’s “Atoms for Peace” program.
1979 — Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fatally ailing, flees Iran as fashionable protests in opposition to him surge. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran and the Islamic Revolution sweeps him to energy. College students seize the US Embassy in Tehran, starting the 444-day hostage disaster. Iran’s nuclear program goes fallow beneath worldwide strain.
August 2002 — Western intelligence providers and an Iranian opposition group reveal Iran’s secret Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
June 2003 — Britain, France and Germany interact Iran in nuclear negotiations.
October 2003 — Iran suspends uranium enrichment.
February 2006 — Iran pronounces it’s going to restart uranium enrichment following the election of hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Britain, France and Germany stroll out of stalled negotiations.
June 2009 — Iran’s disputed presidential election sees Ahmadinejad re-elected regardless of fraud allegations, sparking Inexperienced Motion protests and violent authorities crackdown.
October 2009 — Below President Barack Obama, the U.S. and Iran open a secret backchannel for messages within the sultanate of Oman.
July 2012 — U.S. and Iranian officers maintain face-to-face secret talks in Oman.
July 14, 2015 — World powers and Iran announce a long-term, complete nuclear settlement that limits Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in trade for the lifting of financial sanctions.
The nuclear deal collapses
Might 2018 — Trump unilaterally withdraws the U.S. from the nuclear settlement, calling it the “worst deal ever.” He says he’ll get higher phrases in new negotiations to cease Iran’s missile growth and assist for regional militias. These talks don’t occur in his first time period.
Might 8, 2019 — Iran pronounces it’s going to start backing away from the accord. A sequence of regional assaults on land and at sea blamed on Tehran comply with.
Jan. 3, 2020 — A U.S. drone strike in Baghdad kills Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Tehran’s proxy wars within the Center East.
Jan. 8, 2020 — In retaliation for Soleimani’s killing, Iran launches a barrage of missiles at army bases in Iraq which might be house to 1000’s of American and Iraqi troops. Greater than 100 U.S. service members endure traumatic mind accidents. As Iran braces for a counterattack, the Revolutionary Guard shoots down a Ukrainian passenger aircraft shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s worldwide airport, reportedly mistaking it for a U.S. cruise missile. All 176 individuals on board are killed.
July 2020 — A mysterious explosion tears aside a centrifuge manufacturing plant at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Iran blames the assault on archenemy Israel.
April 6, 2021 — Iran and the U.S. beneath President Joe Biden start oblique negotiations in Vienna over the right way to restore the nuclear deal. These talks, and others between Tehran and European nations, fail to succeed in any settlement.
April 11, 2021 — A second assault inside a yr targets Iran’s Natanz nuclear website, once more seemingly carried out by Israel.
April 16, 2021 — Iran begins enriching uranium as much as 60% — its highest purity ever and a technical step from weapons-grade ranges of 90%.
Feb. 24, 2022 – Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow in the end will come to depend on Iranian bomb-carrying drones within the battle, in addition to missiles.
July 17, 2022 — An adviser to Iran’s supreme chief, Kamal Kharrazi, says that Iran is technically able to making a nuclear bomb, however has not determined whether or not to construct one. His remarks will likely be repeated by others within the coming years as tensions develop.
Mideast wars rage
Oct. 7, 2023 — Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip storm into Israel, killing 1,200 individuals and taking 250 others hostage. This begins probably the most intense warfare ever between Israel and Hamas. Iran, which has armed Hamas, affords assist to the militants. Regional tensions spike.
Nov. 19, 2023 — Yemen’s Houthi rebels, lengthy supported by Iran, seize the ship Galaxy Chief, starting a monthslong marketing campaign of assaults on transport via the Purple Sea hall that the U.S. Navy describes as probably the most intense fight it has seen since World Conflict II. The assaults mirror techniques earlier utilized by Iran.
April 14, 2024 — Iran launches an unprecedented direct assault on Israel, firing over 300 missiles and assault drones. Israel, working with a U.S.-led worldwide coalition, intercepts a lot of the incoming fireplace.
April 19, 2024 — A suspected Israeli strike hits an air protection system by an airport in Isfahan, Iran.
July 31, 2024 – Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas chief, is assassinated apparently by Israel throughout a go to to Tehran after the inauguration of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Sept. 27, 2024 — Israeli airstrike kills Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Oct. 1, 2024 — Iran launches its second direct assault on Israel, although a U.S.-led coalition and Israel shoot down many of the missiles.
Oct. 16, 2024 — Israel kills Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar within the Gaza Strip.
Oct. 26, 2024 — Israel brazenly assaults Iran for the primary time, placing air protection methods and websites related to its missile program.
Trump returns — and reaches out
Jan. 20, 2025 — Trump is inaugurated for his second time period as president.
Feb. 7, 2025 – Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says proposed talks with the U.S. are “not clever, sensible or honorable.”
March 7, 2025 – Trump says he despatched a letter to Khamenei looking for a brand new nuclear cope with Tehran.
March 15, 2025 — Trump launches intense airstrikes concentrating on Houthi rebels in Yemen, the final members of Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” able to each day assaults.
April 7, 2025 — Trump pronounces the U.S. and Iran will maintain direct talks in Oman. Iran says they will be oblique talks, however confirms the assembly.
April 12, 2025 — First spherical of talks between Iran and the U.S. scheduled to happen in Oman.
