What you need to know is that Iran and the United States are considering holding a second round of nuclear talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States are considering holding a second round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program after Israel launched a 12-day war on the country in June and the Islamic Republic carried out a bloody crackdown on protests across the country.

US President Donald Trump has The pressure on Iran continuedTransferring an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the Persian Gulf, and indicating that the United States could attack Iran over the killing of peaceful protesters or if Tehran carries out mass executions over the protests.

Trump also brought Iran’s nuclear program back into the frame after the June war disrupted five rounds of talks held in Rome and Muscat, Oman, last year. Trump also suggested sending a second aircraft carrier to the region.

A senior Iranian security official, Ali Larijani, visited Oman this week and traveled to Qatar, immediately after Trump called its ruling emir. It remains unclear how – or whether – further talks will take place, although Middle Eastern countries fear a collapse in diplomacy could spark a new regional war. US concerns also extend beyond Iran’s nuclear program to its ballistic missiles, support for proxy networks across the region, and other issues.

Iran has said it wants the talks to focus only on the nuclear programme. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted that his country “does not seek to obtain nuclear weapons… and is ready for any kind of verification.” However, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – has been unable to inspect and verify Iran’s nuclear stockpile for months.

Trump first initiated diplomacy by writing a letter last year to 86-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to begin these talks. Khamenei warned that Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own, especially as the theocracy he leads is reeling in the wake of the protests.

Here’s what to know about Iran’s nuclear program and the tensions that have hampered relations between Tehran and Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump writes a letter to Khamenei

Trump sent the letter to Khamenei on March 5, 2025, and then gave a television interview the next day in which he acknowledged sending it. He said: “I wrote them a letter in which I said: I hope you will negotiate because if we have to intervene militarily, it will be a terrible thing.”

Since his return to the White House, he has been Pres Pressure for talks With tightening sanctions and indicating that a military strike by Israel or the United States could target Iranian nuclear sites.

A previous message from Trump during his first term sparked an angry response from the Supreme Leader.

But Trump’s messages to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term led to direct meetings, despite the failure to reach agreements to limit Pyongyang’s nuclear bombs and its missile program capable of reaching the continental United States.

Oman mediated in previous talks

Oman, a sultanate located on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, mediated talks between Araghchi and the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. The two men met face-to-face after indirect talks, which is rare due to decades of tensions between the two countries.

However, it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. At one point, Witkoff appeared on television, where he suggested that 3.67% enrichment for Iran might be something the countries could agree to. But these are exactly the terms set by the 2015 nuclear agreement reached under former US President Barack Obama, from which Trump unilaterally withdrew. Witkoff, Trump and other US officials stressed at the time that Iran could not undertake enrichment under any agreement, something Tehran insisted it would not agree to.

But those negotiations ended with Israel launching war on Iran in June. It hosted a new first round of talks on February 6.

The 12-day war and nationwide protests

Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran last June, which included the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. Iran later admitted in November that the attacks had halted all uranium enrichment in the country, although inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, were unable to visit the bombed sites.

Half a year later, Iran witnessed protests that began in late December due to the collapse of the country’s currency, the rial. These demonstrations quickly spread across the country, prompting Tehran to launch a bloody crackdown that resulted in the deaths of thousands and the arrest of tens of thousands by the authorities.

The Iranian nuclear program raises concerns in the West

Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials are increasingly threatening to seek a nuclear weapon. Iran is now enriching uranium to levels approaching weapons-grade levels by 60%, and it is the only country in the world that does not have a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium to 3.67% purity and maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). The International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report on Iran’s program estimated its stockpile at about 9,870 kilograms (21,760 pounds), with a small portion of it enriched to 60%. For months, the agency was unable to assess the Iranian program, raising concerns about nuclear non-proliferation.

US intelligence agencies estimate that Iran has not yet begun a weapons program, but “has undertaken activities that place it in a better position to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.” Iranian officials threatened to pursue the bomb.

Israel, a close ally of the United States, believes that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon. It wants to cancel its nuclear program, as well as halt its ballistic missile program and support anti-Israel armed groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas.

Decades of tense relations between Iran and the United States

Iran was once one of the United States’ top allies in the Middle East under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts to monitor the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had instigated the 1953 coup that consolidated the Shah’s rule.

But in January 1979, the Shah, suffering from cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations against his rule escalated. This was followed by the Islamic Revolution led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the establishment of the religious government in Iran.

Later that year, university students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, demanding the Shah’s extradition, triggering a 444-day hostage crisis that severed diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States. The Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s saw the United States support Saddam Hussein. The “Tanker War” during that conflict saw the United States launch a day-long attack that paralyzed Iran at sea, while the United States later shot down an Iranian commercial plane that the US military said was a warplane.

Iran and the United States oscillated between hostility and rancor diplomacy in the years that followed, with relations reaching their peak when Tehran concluded the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. But Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018, sparking tensions in the Middle East that continue today.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Outrider Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.