Middle East does not need Iran-US war, diplomatic adviser to UAE President says

The Middle East does not need another confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, and Tehran needs to reach a nuclear deal with Washington, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said at a World Governments Summit panel in Dubai.

"I think that the region has gone through various calamitous confrontations. I don't think we need another one, but I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations leading to understandings that we don't have these issues every other day," he said.

Iran and the United States will resume nuclear talks on Friday in Turkey, Iranian and U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned that with big U.S. warships heading to Iran, bad things would probably happen if a deal could not be reached.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will meet in Istanbul in an effort to revive diplomacy over a long-running dispute about Iran's nuclear programme and dispel fears of a new regional war, while a regional diplomat said representatives from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt would also participate.

Tensions are running high amid a U.S. naval buildup near Iran, following a violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.

-Nayera Abdallah, Jana Choukeir, Federico Maccioni/Reuters