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On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Iran has requested a change of venue for its discussions with the United States, addressing recent speculation surrounding the issue.
“We believed that we had a mutually agreed-upon forum in Turkey, coordinated by several interested partners,” Rubio stated during a press briefing. He addressed the media’s inquiries, clarifying the situation.Â
“Yesterday, I came across conflicting reports from Iran suggesting they had not consented to this arrangement. We are working through these discrepancies. Ultimately, the United States remains ready and willing to engage with Iran as it always has been,” he added.
On February 4, 2026, Secretary Rubio addressed the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial held in the Loy Henderson Conference Room at the State Department’s Harry S. Truman Building in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Insiders familiar with the situation informed Fox News that Iran proposed holding the nuclear discussions in Oman on Friday. Furthermore, Axios highlighted Iran’s push for a direct U.S.-Iran dialogue, excluding other Arab and regional nations. This approach could pose challenges to the U.S.’s diplomatic strategies in the Middle East.
Rubio would not say what topics had been agreed on. Rather, he laid out matters that, in his view, would need to be discussed in order for the meeting to “actually lead to something meaningful.” The topics on Rubio’s list include the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its sponsorship of terror organizations, its nuclear program and the treatment of its people.
Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
The secretary also spoke about the anti-regime protests that have raged in Iran since late December. When the demonstrations began, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would act if protesters were met with violence. Rubio credited Trump’s tough talk with the cancellation of protesters’ executions, something that the regime has denied.
“The Iranian people and the Iranian regime are very unalike,” Rubio said. “The leadership of Iran at the clerical level does not reflect the people of Iran. I know of no other country where there’s a bigger difference between the people that lead the country and the people who live there.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned of possible U.S. action on Iran. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Anadolu via Getty Images; Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Rubio said that the Islamic regime is unable to fix the economic problems plaguing its people because Iranian leaders are using the country’s money and resources to sponsor terrorism and proxy groups around the world.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military shot down an Iranian drone after it “aggressively approached a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier with unclear intent,” a U.S. Central Command spokesman told Fox News.
The state tax building burned during Iran’s protests, on a street in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 19, 2026. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
Iran later claimed that the drone was conducting surveillance as part of a “routine and lawful mission over international waters.”