Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with members of the Air Force in Tehran, Iran February 5, 2024.
WANA News Agency | Reuters
Iran will not participate in the sixth round of nuclear negotiations with the United States scheduled for this weekend, Iranian state television said Friday amid continued Israeli airstrikes against Iran.
The talks were expected to take place on Sunday in Muscat, Oman.
“We are still hoping for talks,” a U.S. official said Friday morning.
But the Times of Oman reported that the Oman News Agency and Iranian state television said the talks were suspended until further notice.
Meanwhile Friday, two Iranian news agencies reported that two explosions were heard near the Fordo nuclear enrichment site, according to NBC News. That site is buried deep underground.
Air defense systems were activated in central Tehran, and there were also new Israeli airstrikes in Isfahan, according to Mehr News, a semi-official news agency in Iran.
An Israeli Defense Forces colonel confirmed on X that “IDF has carried out strikes against the nuclear plant in Isfahan.”
“This is in addition to operations in Natanz,” the post said.
U.S. President Donald Trump earlier Friday urged Tehran to reach a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left,” hours after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against Iran.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump said on his Truth Social media platform.
He added that he warned Tehran that “the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.”
Infographic with a map of Iran showing nuclear sites, reactors and uranium mines.
Graphic by SYLVIE HUSSON, NALINI LEPETIT-CHELLA, SABRINA BLANCHARD| AFP | via Getty Images
The U.S. has said it was briefed by Israel on the attacks but did not participate.
Iranian media reported the airstrikes hit Tehran and Natanz, which houses a key nuclear facility.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Friday morning, Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was not impacted, and “no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz site.”
The commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hossein Salam, was killed during the onslaught, Iranian state media reported. Israel’s Defense Ministry said most of the top brass of the IRGC died in the attack. CNBC could not independently verify this report.
Circumstances “will only get worse,” but further bloodshed could still be prevented, Trump said. “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”
Nuclear deal hangs in the balance
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the first Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal during his first presidential mandate, imposing a spate of wide-spanning and economically debilitating sanctions against Tehran at the time.
The U.S. president has been steadfast in pursuing a new deal over Iran’s nuclear program since returning to the White House, stressing he favored an agreement. Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran have yet to bear fruit on this count, however, with Tehran accusing Washington of not respecting Iran’s right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful purposes.
A fresh round of U.S.-Iran nuclear deal negotiations were scheduled for Sunday in Oman. Iranian officials have been cited by state media saying they will not be attending.
Other world leaders have broadly urged restraint as Iran and Israel navigate the conflict, amid Tehran’s pledge to retaliate.
Markets are currently watching whether the rekindled hostilities between archrivals Iran and Israel, which have been simmering since direct fire was last exchanged in 2024, will embroil the broader oil-rich Middle East region.
— CNBC’s Natasha Turak contributed to this report.
