The U.S. told Iran on Wednesday that it will not agree to Tehran's demands to change the location and format of talks planned for Friday.

Axar.az reports that two U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: The standoff could block the diplomatic path and convince President Trump to opt for military action.

Driving the news: The U.S. and Iran had agreed to meet on Friday in Istanbul, with other Middle Eastern countries participating as observers.

• But the Iranians said on Tuesday that they wanted to move the talks to Oman and hold them in a bilateral format, to ensure that they focused only on nuclear issues and not other matters like missiles that are priorities for the U.S. and countries in the region.

• U.S. officials considered the request to change the location, but decided on Wednesday to reject it. Friction point: "We told them it is this or nothing, and they said, 'Ok, then nothing,'" a senior U.S. official said.

• The official said that if the Iranians are willing to go back to the original format, the U.S. is ready to meet this week or next week.

• "We want to reach a real deal quickly, or people will look at other options," the senior official said, alluding to Trump's repeated threats of military action.

• "We tried to reach an accommodation, but the Iranians refused. There is a good chance the talks won't happen now at all this week," a second U.S. official said.

• The Iranian mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Behind the scenes:

The U.S. officials said the U.S. and Iran had initially agreed to hold talks in Istanbul on two tracks:

1. Direct U.S.-Iran talks on a nuclear deal.

2. Multilateral talks on issues like Iran's missile program, support for proxy groups, and human rights violations in the violent crackdown on protesters.

Zoom in: On Tuesday, Witkoff met in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a group of senior Israeli defense officials to coordinate positions ahead of the talks with Iran.

• Israeli officials say Witkoff was briefed on Israel's latest intelligence on Iran, and that Netanyahu emphasized that Iran can't be trusted.

• "Steve was combative. He understands very well they are trying to tap him along, and he said he won't allow it," an Israeli official said.

What's next: The U.S. officials said that White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Qatar on Thursday for talks on Iran with the prime minister.

• From there, they currently plan to return to Miami rather than traveling to meet the Iranians.

• The U.S. officials said that, considering Iran's behavior in recent days, and the lack of a breakthrough in previous talks, they're skeptical a deal is possible.

• "We didn't want to be flexible here because if there is a deal, it has to be real. We didn't want to go back to the old way of doing things," one U.S. official said.

The bottom line: "We are not naive about the Iranians. If there is a real conversation to have, we will have it, but we are not going to waste our time," the second U.S. official said.