Iranian and US negotiators have resumed talks in Rome to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Iranian media reports, despite Tehran warning that a new deal might not be possible amid mutually exclusive demands.
The stakes are high for both sides. US President Donald Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. The Islamic Republic, for its part, wants to be rid of devastating sanctions on its oil-based economy.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are leading the fifth round of talks, through Omani mediators.
“This round of talks is especially sensitive … we need to see what issues will be raised by the other party … and based on that, we will proceed with our positions,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei tells state TV in Rome.
Both Washington and Tehran have taken a tough stance in public over Iran’s intensifying uranium enrichment program, which could potentially give it scope to build a nuclear warhead, even though Tehran says it has no such ambitions and that the purposes are purely civilian.
Iran insists the talks are indirect, but US officials have said the discussions – including the latest round on May 11 in Oman – have been both “direct and indirect.”
Ahead of talks, Araghchi wrote on X: “Zero nuclear weapons = we Do have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal. Time to decide.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump believes negotiations with Iran are “moving in the right direction.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Washington was working to reach an accord that would allow Iran to have a civil nuclear energy program but not enrich uranium, while admitting that this “will not be easy.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on matters of state, rejected demands to stop refining uranium as “excessive and outrageous,” warning that such talks were unlikely to yield results.
Among remaining stumbling blocks is Tehran’s refusal to ship abroad its entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium – possible raw material for nuclear bombs – or engage in discussions over its ballistic missile program, which could carry warheads over long distances.
Iran says it is ready to accept some limits on enrichment, but needs watertight guarantees that Washington would not renege on a future nuclear accord.
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