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Iran, US Talks to Be Held Friday in Oman

US and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
US and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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Iran, US Talks to Be Held Friday in Oman

US and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
US and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Iran will hold nuclear negotiations with the United States on Friday in Oman, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.
"Indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States are set to be held on Friday in Muscat," said the Tasnim news agency, adding that they "will be limited to the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions on Iran".
ISNA news agency carried a similar report, saying Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will head the Iranian delegation, which will also include senior diplomats Majid Takht-Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, AFP reported.
US envoy Steve Witkoff will represent Washington in the talks, ISNA added, noting that President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner may also be present.
Araghchi and Witkoff led five rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States last year before negotiations were derailed when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign two days ahead of a planned sixth round, triggering a 12-day war.
Friday's talks will be held amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, as the United States has in recent days deployed an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East following a crackdown on anti-government protests.
Tehran has acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths during the unrest.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based NGO, said it has confirmed 6,872 deaths, mostly protesters killed by security forces, with other rights groups warning the figure is likely far higher.

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World

Man Who Tried to Shoot Trump at a Florida Golf Course Gets Life in Prison

A person walks past the Alto Lee Adams Sr. US Courthouse as the sentencing hearing of Ryan Routh takes place in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, 04 February 2026. (EPA)
A person walks past the Alto Lee Adams Sr. US Courthouse as the sentencing hearing of Ryan Routh takes place in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, 04 February 2026. (EPA)
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Man Who Tried to Shoot Trump at a Florida Golf Course Gets Life in Prison

A person walks past the Alto Lee Adams Sr. US Courthouse as the sentencing hearing of Ryan Routh takes place in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, 04 February 2026. (EPA)
A person walks past the Alto Lee Adams Sr. US Courthouse as the sentencing hearing of Ryan Routh takes place in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, 04 February 2026. (EPA)

A man convicted of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.

Prosecutors had asked for life without parole, saying Routh is unrepentant and has never apologized. A defense attorney brought in for his sentencing asked for 27 years, noting that Routh is already turning 60.

Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.

Routh's sentencing had initially been scheduled for December, but Cannon agreed to move the date back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial.

Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Routh has yet to accept any responsibility and should spend the rest of his life in prison, in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines. He was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, using a firearm in furtherance of a crime, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and using a gun with a defaced serial number.

“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologized for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for law,” the memo said.

Routh's new defense attorney, Martin L. Roth, asked for a variance from sentencing guidelines: 20 years in prison on top of a seven-year, mandatory sentence for one of the gun convictions.

“The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old,” Roth wrote in a filing. “A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”

Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the Republican presidential candidate played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.

At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.

In the motion requesting an attorney, Routh offered to trade his life in a prisoner swap with people unjustly held in other countries, and said an offer still stood for Trump to “take out his frustrations on my face.”

“Just a quarter of an inch further back and we all would not have to deal with all of this mess forwards, but I always fail at everything (par for the course),” Routh wrote.

In her decision granting Routh an attorney, Cannon chastised the “disrespectful charade” of Routh's motion, saying it made a mockery of the proceedings. But the judge, nominated by Trump in 2020, said she wanted to err on the side of legal representation.

Cannon signed off last summer on Routh’s request to represent himself at trial. The US Supreme Court has held that criminal defendants have the right to represent themselves in court proceedings, as long as they can show a judge they are competent to waive their right to be defended by an attorney.

Routh’s former federal public defenders served as standby counsel and were present during the trial.

Routh had multiple previous felony convictions including possession of stolen goods, and a large online footprint demonstrating his disdain for Trump. In a self-published book, he encouraged Iran to assassinate him, and at one point wrote that as a Trump voter, he must take part of the blame for electing him.

World

Rubio Says US Ready to Meet Iran but Must Discuss Missiles

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a news conference during the first Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building on February 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a news conference during the first Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building on February 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Rubio Says US Ready to Meet Iran but Must Discuss Missiles

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a news conference during the first Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building on February 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a news conference during the first Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building on February 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

The United States is ready to meet Iran this week, but discussions must cover its missile and nuclear programs, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

Rubio did not confirm a meeting on Friday with Iran's clerical state, which has violently put down some of the most serious protests against its rule since the 1979 revolution.

"If the Iranians want to meet, we're ready," Rubio told reporters.

"They've expressed an interest in meeting and talking. If they change their mind, we're fine with that too," he said, after President Donald Trump ordered a sharp military buildup near Iran's coast and threatened to strike.

"In order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region, that includes their nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people," Rubio said.

Iran in previous talks on its disputed nuclear program has ruled out discussions on its missiles, casting the weapons that can hit Israel as a tool of self-defense to which every country has a right.

But Iran has been under growing pressure from the protests and after an Israeli bombing campaign last year. Iran has also lost key regional allies with Israel's severe degrading of Lebanon's Hezbollah and the fall of veteran Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Iranian state media said Wednesday that talks with the United States would take place Friday in Oman, after diplomats earlier said the meeting would happen on Friday in Türkiye.

Rubio said that US envoy Steve Witkoff had been ready to meet with Iran in Türkiye but then received "conflicting reports" on whether Tehran had agreed.

"That's still being worked out," he said of the location for the talks.

World

Trump Says He Discussed Iran with China’s Xi as US Pushes Beijing and Others to Isolate Tehran

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a spending bill that ends a partial shutdown of the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a spending bill that ends a partial shutdown of the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Trump Says He Discussed Iran with China’s Xi as US Pushes Beijing and Others to Isolate Tehran

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a spending bill that ends a partial shutdown of the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a spending bill that ends a partial shutdown of the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Iran in a wide-ranging call that comes as the US administration pushes Beijing and others to isolate Tehran. 

Trump said the two leaders also discussed a broad range of other critical issues in the US-China relationship, including trade and Taiwan and his plans to visit Beijing in April. 

“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” Trump said in a social media posting about the call. 

The Chinese government, in a readout of the call, said the two leaders discussed major summits that both nations will host in the coming year and present opportunities for the two leaders to potentially meet. The Chinese statement, however, made no mention of Trump’s expected April visit to Beijing. 

China also made clear that it has no intention of stepping away from its long-term plans of reunification with Taiwan, a self-governing, democratic island operating independently from mainland China, though Beijing claims it as its own territory. 

“China will never allow Taiwan to be split,” the Chinese statement said. 

Trump, who continues to weigh taking military action against Iran, announced last month in a social media post he would impose a 25% tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. 

Years of sanctions aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear program have left the country isolated. But Tehran still did nearly $125 billion in international trade in 2024, including $32 billion with China, according to the World Trade Organization. 

Separately, Xi also spoke on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Xi’s engagement with Trump and Putin comes as the last remaining nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States is set to expire Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. 

Trump, a Republican, has indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons but wants to involve China in a potential new treaty. 

“I actually feel strongly that if we’re going to do it, I think China should be a member of the extension,” Trump told the New York Times last month. “China should be a part of the agreement.”