Scoop: Trump holds situation room meeting on Iran nuclear deal negotiations

• Ahead of the meeting Trump spoke on the phone with the Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq and discussed the Omani mediation between the U.S. and Iran.
• "The two leaders discussed ways to back these negotiations to achieve the desired outcomes," the Omani state news agency said.
• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump "emphasized to the Omani Sultan the need for Iran to end its nuclear program through negotiations."

Behind the scenes: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA director John Ratcliffe and other top officials participated in the situation room meeting on Tuesday.

• The meeting took place amid intense debate within the administration over the way forward in the negotiations and the compromises the U.S. should or shouldn't make.
• Vance and Witkoff think diplomacy could lead to a nuclear deal and think the U.S. should be ready to make some compromises in order to get it.
• Other senior members of the administration, including Rubio and Waltz, are highly skeptical and support a maximalist approach to the negotiations.

Trump himself is sending mixed messages. He has said he wants a deal and thinks the nuclear crisis is solvable through diplomacy but has also threatened Iran with a military strike.

• The White House declined to comment on the meeting. Leavitt told reporters that "the maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues but the president made it clear he wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran while making clear Iran can't have a nuclear weapon."

Driving the news: On Monday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Iran has to move fast in the negotiations and stressed that Iran "might be tapping us along" in the nuclear talks.

• Trump threatened again to use military power against Iran. "If we have to do something very harsh we will do it," he said.
• On Monday evening, Witkoff said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News that the first round of talks with Iran last Saturday in Oman was positive.

Zoom in: Witkoff said the U.S. position is Iran would have to stop enriching uranium to the level of 20% and to the near weapons-grade level of 60%, but didn't rule out that the Iranians would be able to continue enriching uranium to the level of 3.67% that is needed for a civilian nuclear energy program.

• Witkoff added that any nuclear deal would have to verify Iran's enrichment levels and that it doesn't build ballistic missiles that can deliver a nuclear weapon or build triggers that can detonate nuclear bombs.

Witkoff's remarks were very different from what Waltz said in recent weeks about the need to dismantle the entire nuclear program.

• His remarks also contradicted what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his meeting with Trump last week about the need to fully dismantle Iran's nuclear program, like what he claimed happened in Libya in 2003.

On Tuesday morning, Witkoff clarified his remarks and wrote on X that "any final arrangement must set a framework for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East — meaning that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program."

The other side: Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday during a meeting with top government officials in Tehran that the first round of talks with the U.S. was "satisfactory."

• Khamenei said he is "neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic" about the negotiations and stressed he is "very skeptical of the other party, but confident in our own capabilities."

What to watch: The next round of talks between the U.S. and Iran on Saturday was supposed to take place in Rome.

• The U.S., Iran and the Italian government confirmed it and visas have been issued for the Iranian delegation.
• But on Monday evening the Iranian foreign ministry said the venue for the next round of talks has been moved back to Muscat. U.S. officials haven't confirmed the change in location.
• Sources with knowledge of the issue said one of the reasons for moving the talks from Rome was that Vance is expected to be there over the weekend and the White House wanted to avoid the overlap.