U.S. and Iranian Officials to Meet as Trump’s Threats Loom
NY Times-feb3rd2026
President Trump’s Middle East envoy and his son-in-law were expected to meet Iran’s foreign minister in Istanbul on Friday amid tensions between the countries.

Senior U.S. and Iranian officials are expected to meet in Istanbul on Friday for talks aimed at de-escalating the crisis between their countries, according to three current regional officials and a former one who were familiar with the planning.
The talks, they said, aim to bring together Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy; Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law; and Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, the officials said. Also expected to attend are senior officials from Turkey, Qatar and Egypt.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists. They included an Arab official, a regional official, a senior Iranian official and a former Iranian diplomat.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The plans for the negotiations could change.
If the talks happen, they will mark a rare face-to-face encounter between U.S. and Iranian officials at a time when military threats by Mr. Trump, and the refusal of Iran’s leaders to accept his demands, have brought the two countries to the precipice of war, spreading fear across the region.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has threatened to bomb Iran if its embattled leaders, who last month crushed mass protests with lethal force, did not yield to his demands. Those include Iran’s ending its nuclear program, accepting limits on its ballistic missiles and halting its support for proxy militias around the Arab world.
So far, Iran’s leaders have said that they would not negotiate while under threat, while vowing a harsh response to any American attack.
Relations between Mr. Trump and Iran have been sour since his first term, when he withdrew the United States from a 2015 international agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program. They have grown substantially worse over the last year.
In June, the United States joined with Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, and claimed to have significantly set back the country’s ability to enrich uranium.

Last month, as anti-government protests raged across Iran, Mr. Trump threatened to intervene militarily if Iran’s security forces used violence against demonstrators. They did, killing many thousands of people, according to human rights groups, before claiming to have stamped out the unrest.
When he issued his demands last month Mr. Trump vowed to use force if Iran refused to accept them. He has raised the possibility of regime change in Iran, and said that time was running out, without providing a clear deadline.
He announced that a U.S. “armada” was moving toward the country “with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose.” Flight tracking data and satellite imagery confirmed that the United States had indeed expanded its military presence in the region.
Mr. Trump’s demands aimed to address longstanding concerns about the threat that Iran and its proxies posed to United States military bases and close U.S. partners, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. But while many Middle Eastern countries also opposed Iran’s regional activities, few of its neighbors supported Mr. Trump’s vow to attack it, concerned that such a move could set off a broader war.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/world/middleeast/us-iran-meeting-trump-threats.html


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