LONDON — Negotiating teams from the United States and Iran are expected to meet on Friday in Oman, marking a reopening of nuclear talks following weeks of tensions and threats, as leaders in Tehran oversaw a deadly crackdown on widespread protests. 

The U.S. side will be led by President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to the White House.

“The President has obviously been quite clear in his demands of the Iranian regime,” Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday during a press briefing. “Zero nuclear capability is something he’s been very explicit about.”

Iranian state-run media published photos and videos early on Friday of Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the Omani capital, where he met with his local counterpart.

“Iran enters diplomacy with open eyes and a steady memory of the past year. We engage in good faith and stand firm on our rights,” Araghchi said on social media on Friday.

The talks, which were expected to begin at 10 a.m. local time, followed weeks of escalating tension between the U.S. and Iran, fueled in part by massive protests that have roiled Iran.

Those protests began in Tehran in late December in response to the collapse of the Iranian currency and the worsening of economic conditions, and then quickly took on a political character — with crowds on the streets openly calling for regime change.

Iranian authorities responded by launching a brutal crackdown on protests, according to observers. At least 6,495 protesters, along with hundreds of members of the state’s security forces, have been killed, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency, an activist group. The group said it was reviewing thousands of other cases of possible deaths. ABC News cannot independently verify those figures.

As those protests escalated in January, Trump voiced concern for the protesters, saying, “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

Trump later in January said a “massive Armada” was heading toward the region. He warned Tehran to make a nuclear deal, saying another U.S. attack would be “far worse” than the U.S. strike on nuclear sites within Iran in June of last year.

The Iranian foreign minister responded by saying the country’s military had “their fingers on the trigger.”

Those tensions had to some extent begun to thaw by last week, when Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said he had instructed Araghchi to pursue “fair and equitable” talks with Washington. The White House had sought help from regional allies, who assisted in bringing Iran back to the negotiating table, according to both countries.

Araghchi said on Friday that any commitments made between the two countries “need to be honored,” adding, “Equal standing, mutual respect and mutual interest are not rhetoric — they are a must and the pillars of a durable agreement.”

Members of the Trump administration last held a series of nuclear talks with Iran in April and May 2025 in Oman. A round of those talks planned for June was scuttled after Israel launched aerial strikes on Iran, an attack that the U.S. later joined.

Senior U.S. officials have continued publicly voicing concerns about the Iranian leadership in the days since the latest round of talks were announced.

“The Iranian regime does not reflect the people of Iran, nor their culture rooted within a deep history,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday. “I know of no other country where there’s a bigger difference between the people who lead the country and the people who live there.”

The virtual U.S. Embassy in Iran posted on Thursday a security alert again calling for all U.S. citizens to depart Iran, provided it’s safe for them to do so. 

“If you cannot leave, find a secure location within your residence or another safe building,” the alert said.

Leavitt on Thursday said Trump was seeking a deal with Iran, but, she added, “I would remind the Iranian regime that the President has many options at his disposal, aside from diplomacy, as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world.”