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Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that Iran requested to change locations for talks with its U.S. counterparts, following several reports on the matter.
“We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to in Turkey. It was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it,” Rubio said when taking questions from reporters on Wednesday.
“I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that. So, that’s still being worked through. At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage in, has always been prepared to engage with Iran.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks at the first Critical Minerals Ministerial in the Loy Henderson Conference Room at the State Department’s Harry S. Truman Building on Feb. 04, 2026, in Washington, DC. ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
A source familiar with the discussions told Fox News on Tuesday that Iran had requested to hold nuclear talks with the U.S. in Oman on Friday. Additionally, Axios reported that Iranian officials were pressing to limit the talks to a bilateral U.S.-Iran format, excluding other Arab and regional countries — a move that could complicate U.S. diplomatic efforts in the region.
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)
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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)
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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)
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Iran later claimed that the drone was conducting surveillance as part of a “routine and lawful mission over international waters.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan, Greg Norman-Diamond and Liz Friden, and Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie contributed to this report.