The U.S. Virtual Embassy in Iran issued a security alert early Friday urging American citizens to “leave Iran now” and prepare departure plans that don’t rely on U.S. government assistance.
The notice comes ahead of U.S. and Iran’s scheduled talks in Oman on Friday, with little indication that the two sides have found common ground over the agenda of the meeting.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, were due to take part in the meeting with a team led by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to American and Iranian officials.
The U.S. has issued several similar security alerts over the past month. The Embassy last urged American citizens to leave the country in a warning on Jan. 14 as Trump was weighing options for a possible intervention in Iran, including targeted military strikes.
The talks on Friday would be the first official meeting between Tehran and Washington since tensions flared in June last year, when a 12-day war with Israel led to U.S. airstrikes that severely damaged Iran’s three main nuclear facilities.
Differences over the scope and venue for the talks have cast doubts on whether they will yield results, keeping open the risk of a U.S. military action.
The U.S. government has reportedly demanded Iran to discard its stockpile of enriched uranium, put limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and stop arming and funding militant groups in the Middle East. Trump has threatened military strikes against Tehran if it fails to agree to U.S. demands.
Iran has pushed back, saying U.S. demands are an unacceptable infringement on its sovereignty and has threatened to respond forcefully to any attacks by striking U.S. military targets in the region and Israel.