Updates with comments from President Donald Trump
US and Iranian diplomats will hold another round of talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on 26 February, despite militant rhetoric from both sides.
Oman's foreign minister Badr Albusaidi announced the date and venue of planned talks in a social media post on Sunday. The previous two rounds of talks did not resolve differences over Iran's nuclear program.
President Donald Trump's administration has moved more US naval and air force resources to the region near Iran. Tehran threatened to retaliate against US bases and interests across the Middle East in the event of a US attack.
Trump on 20 February said he was considering a possible, limited strike on Iran to pressure Tehran to make unspecified concessions.
Despite making those remarks to reporters on live TV three days earlier, Trump in a social media post on Monday decried "the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about" and said that "everything that has been written about a potential War with Iran has been written incorrectly".
Trump may have been responding to a Washington Post story published on Monday, which said that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Dan Caine had cautioned Trump about potential risks of a military operation against Iran.
"Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won," Trump posted.
Caine "only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack", Trump said. "I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don't make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them."
The US State Department on Monday ordered the departure from Lebanon of non-emergency US personnel and family members of the remaining personnel, citing "the security situation in Beirut".
The US naval buildup in the region near Iran is the largest since 2003, when the US was preparing to invade Iraq, think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies experts Mark Cancian and Chris Park said in a report on 20 February.
But the naval and air force assets deployed to the region do not indicate any deployment of ground forces, the experts said. The composition of the US military buildup is comparable to the 1998 operation that featured multiple days of air strikes against Iraq, Cancian and Park wrote. The military assets in place as of 20 February would allow launching 50-100 Tomahawks or other long-range missiles against targets in Iran, according to them.
Trump is scheduled to give his annual State of the Union address to the US Congress on Tuesday evening, Washington time. Trump's administration has not briefed lawmakers on the rationale behind the threats to use military force against Iran, and the president has not asked for congressional authorization to target Iran.
