ISTANBUL/DOHA: President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye is working hard to prevent US-Iran tensions from tipping the Middle East into a new conflict, as the two adversaries signal that disagreement over Tehran’s missile arsenal threatens to torpedo a deal.
Speaking to reporters on a return flight from a visit to Egypt, Erdogan added that talks at the level of the US and Iranian leadership would be helpful after lower-level nuclear negotiations due in Oman on Friday, according to a transcript of his comments shared by his office on Thursday.
Turkiye was doing its best to prevent an escalation, said Erdogan, who has spent years cultivating a close relationship with US President Donald Trump while expanding Ankara’s diplomatic influence across the Middle East and beyond.
Iran and the US remain at odds over Washington’s insistence that negotiations include Tehran’s missile arsenal and Iran’s vow to discuss only its nuclear programme, in a standoff that has led to mutual threats of airstrikes.
Differences over the scope and venue for the discussions have raised doubts whether the meeting would take place, leaving open the possibility that Trump could carry out a threat to strike Iran.
Asked on Wednesday whether Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be worried, Trump told NBC News: “I would say he should be very worried. Yeah, he should be.” He added that “they’re negotiating with us” but did not elaborate.
After Trump spoke, US and Iranian officials said the two sides had agreed to shift the talks’ location to Muscat after initially accepting Istanbul. But there was no indication they had found common ground on the agenda.
Tensions are high across the region as the US builds up forces there, and regional players seek to avoid a military confrontation that many fear could escalate into a wider war.
Merz plea to Tehran
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Iran’s leadership to “truly enter talks” on Thursday, the eve of their planned negotiations with US envoys, saying there was a “great fear of military escalation in the region”.
Speaking to reporters in the Qatari capital Doha, Merz said Iran had to “stop its nuclear programme” and avoid “further military threats” to Israel and other countries in the region.
“Talks will therefore be intensified in the next hours,” Merz said, adding that Germany was “co-ordinating closely” with the US.
Merz is currently on a three-day visit to the region, where he has met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and will later head to the United Arab Emirates.
Merz also responded to comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in which he attacked Merz’s “political naivety and distasteful character”, recalling that Merz had described Israel’s June 2025 attack on Iran as doing the “dirty work… for all of us”. Araghchi called Germany an “engine of regression” in a post on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
“I have seen this tweet and can only say it seems to be a sign of great nervousness and insecurity,” Merz said.
A Gulf official said the talks could be mediated by several countries, though Iran has indicated that it wants a two-way format limited to Washington and Tehran. The diplomatic efforts follow Trump’s threats of military action against Iran during its bloody crackdown on protesters last month and the deployment of more naval power to the Gulf.
The US has sent thousands of troops to the Middle East, as well as an aircraft carrier, other warships, fighter jets, spy planes and air refueling tankers.
After Israel and the United States bombed the Islamic Republic last summer, renewed friction has kindled fears among regional states of a major conflagration that could rebound on them or cause long-term chaos in Iran.
Trump has warned that “bad things” would probably happen if a deal could not be reached, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic.
