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The American envoy Steve Witkoff and the first Iranian diplomat will meet again next week while the Trump administration press the Islamic Republic to accept an agreement to reverse its nuclear advances.
Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met in Rome for a second series of critical talks on Saturday aimed at ending a dead end between Washington and Tehran who is likely to trigger the next Middle East conflict.
Araghchi described the four -hour meeting – mediated by Oman at the residence of the Omani ambassador to Rome, with delegations in separate parts – as “good” and “prospective” and maintained in a “constructive atmosphere”.
He said the two parties were to meet again next Saturday in Muscat, following “technical” discussions scheduled for Wednesday in the Arab State of the Gulf.
“We cannot say that we are optimistic. We are cautious and have no reason to be pessimistic either,” Araghchi said on Iranian state television after talks. “We hope that by next week, we will be in better position to assess the possibility of an understanding.”
Before this weekend talks, US officials gave mixed signals on what President Donald Trump expected Iran to accept.
Witkoff suggested at the start of the week that the United States could be ready to allow Tehran to continue to enrich uranium with low levels. But the next day, he said that Iran “had to stop and eliminate” his nuclear enrichment program to conclude an agreement with Trump.
It would be a red line for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme chief of Iran, who insists that Tehran has the right to enrich uranium under the International Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran has widened its enrichment program since Trump withdrew during his first mandate from the nuclear agreement that Tehran had signed with the Obama administration, the European powers, Russia and China in 2015.
Under this agreement, Iran has accepted strict limits of its nuclear activity, in particular enriching uranium at levels not exceeding 3.67% of purity, in exchange for sanctions.
But Iran has enriched uranium at levels up to 60% purity in the past four years and has the capacity to produce sufficient fissile materials for nuclear bombs in a few weeks.
The annual threat assessment report of the United States community said last month that “Iran does not build a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei had not reautored the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003”.
Trump insisted that he wanted to resolve the crisis diplomatically, but warned that America would take military measures, potentially alongside Israel, if Iran did not accept an agreement. The United States has deployed additional forces in the region in recent weeks, including a second aircraft carrier and bombers.
Iran is committed to retaliation against any attack.
On Friday, during its national army day, Iran showed an S-300 Russian manufacturing air defense system. Israel said it had destroyed a large part of Iran’s air defenses in a wave of air strikes last October. State Media reported that the system, known as Bavar-373 in Iran, presented in the parade was a “improved” version, rebuilt by Iranian engineers.
