Türkiye will offer to mediate between Washington and Tehran when Iran's foreign minister visits Friday, officials said, as Ankara mulls reinforcing security along its border should the dispute escalate.
Friday's visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi comes after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a military strike on Iran over its deadly protest crackdown this month and the lack of a nuclear agreement.
A U.S. naval strike group is in the Middle East and Trump has warned it was "ready, willing and able" to hit Iran "if necessary".
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will tell Araghchi that his country "is ready to contribute to resolving the current tensions through dialogue", a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Fidan would reiterate Türkiye's opposition "to military interventions against Iran (over) the regional and global risks such a step would entail", said the source, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera television on Wednesday, Fidan said he had suggested Washington tackle outstanding issues with Iran "one-by-one", starting with the nuclear file rather than trying to address everything at once.
His remarks reflected Tehran's own stance on talks, said Serhan Afacan, director of IRAM, the Ankara-based Center for Iranian Studies.
"If Trump invites the Iranians to reach a deal on the nuclear file, they are going to say yes. But if you put all of the issues in the same basket, that will be impossible," he said.
"For now, the ballistic missile programme remains a red line, as it sits at the core of Iran's defense architecture," he said.
"Compromise is not impossible, but it would only come after long rounds of negotiations and if Tehran's security concerns - especially vis-a-vis the U.S. and Israel - are substantially addressed," he told AFP.
"It all depends on what President Trump is going to say: if he says 'I'm not going to attack Iran' we should expect to see negotiations in a matter of weeks."
As well as Türkiye's diplomatic efforts to stave off a military confrontation, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also been pushing Washington for a high-level trilateral meeting, Turkish media reports said.
There was no official confirmation.
"Türkiye's focus in U.S.-Iran relations is not necessarily on resolving all disputes, but on preventing a military intervention," Ankara-based Iranian academic Arif Keskin told AFP, saying a strike risked generating serious security problems and possible mass migration.
Türkiye's stance aligned with the approach of pro-negotiation circles in Iran, he said.
"At this stage, it is widely acknowledged that the actor that would benefit most from negotiations and a potential agreement would be the Iranian leadership itself," Keskin said.
"Even the initiation of talks is viewed as a significant gain for Iran."
Alongside its diplomatic push, Ankara is assessing additional security precautions along its border with Iran if a U.S. strike destabilises the country, a senior Turkish official told AFP.
Despite unrest in Iran and the threat of a U.S. strike, there has been no evidence of any large-scale movements towards the border, the defense ministry said earlier this month.
To date, Türkiye has built 380 kilometres (236 miles) of concrete wall and 553 kilometres of trenches with nearly 250 surveillance towers, official figures show, with drones providing round-the clock reconnaissance.
