Iran on Friday said it expected to hold more negotiations with the United States after a day of indirect talks in Oman seen as a critical chance for diplomacy after President Donald Trump threatened new military action against Tehran.

With an American naval group led by an aircraft carrier in Middle Eastern waters, U.S. and Iranian delegations held talks in Muscat mediated by the Gulf sultanate without publicly meeting face-to-face.

Iran and the United States will hold talks Friday in Oman, their latest over Tehran's nuclear program after Israel launched a 12-day war on the country in June and the Islamic Republic launched a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

U.S. President Donald Trump has kept up pressure on Iran, suggesting America could attack Iran over the killing of peaceful demonstrators or if Tehran launches mass executions over the protests. Meanwhile, Trump has pushed Iran's nuclear program back into the frame as well after the June war disrupted five rounds of talks held in Rome and Muscat, Oman, last year.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have seized two oil tankers with their foreign crews in Gulf waters for "smuggling fuel," the Tasnim news agency reported Thursday.

It was not immediately clear what flags the tankers were carrying nor the nationalities of the crew.

Sustaining the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group is an "absolute priority" for France, its foreign minister said Thursday after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Damascus.

"For 10 years, France has fought relentlessly and mercilessly against the terrorists of Daesh in Iraq as well as in Syria," said Jean-Noel Barrot, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

A walled compound in Lebanon housing hundreds of people who fled their homes in Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad over a year ago has drawn allegations that the residents are Assad loyalists, which they deny.

The attention on the compound in Hermel town highlights the sensitivities around Syria's transformation after a long civil war, suspicions that can linger about identity and minorities' fear of retaliation.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Iran in a wide-ranging call as the U.S. administration pushes Beijing and others to further isolate Tehran.

Trump said the two leaders also discussed a broad range of other critical issues in the U.S.-China relationship, including trade and Taiwan and his plans to visit Beijing in April.

Nuclear talks between Iran and the United States will take place Friday in Oman, the Iranian foreign minister said, as tensions between the countries remain high following Tehran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month.

The announcement Wednesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after hours of indications that the anticipated talks were faltering over changes in the format and content of the talks. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, sent a blunt warning to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ahead of the talks.

Talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place in Oman but the scope of the discussions needs to be agreed, an Arab diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.

"A meeting is requested in Oman by the Iranians, and the Americans have approved the location, but the parameters of discussions are still being worked on," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Many hoped the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza would bring relief to the war-battered territory, but for the first few Palestinians allowed to cross, it proved more harrowing than a homecoming.

Three women who entered Gaza on the first day of the reopening told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Israeli troops blindfolded and handcuffed them, then interrogated and threatened them, holding them for several hours and inflicting what they said was humiliating treatment until they were released.

A second round of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the United States has begun in the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine's lead negotiator announced Wednesday.

"Another round of negotiations has begun in Abu Dhabi," the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, wrote on social media, adding Kyiv's team was seeking "to achieve a just and lasting peace."