Iran-US nuclear talks show limited progress in Rome, more rounds expected

Iranian and US negotiators wrapped up a fifth round of talks on Friday, with mediator Oman saying there was some limited progress in negotiations aimed at resolving a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The sides will meet again, though the date and venue still have to be decided, a source close to the Iranian team told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from the US delegation at Friday’s session in Rome.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was potential for progress in the negotiations after Oman made several proposals, but the talks were complicated and more discussions were needed.

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“We’ve just completed one of the most professional rounds of negotiations,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.

The stakes are high for both sides. 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.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, whose country is mediating the negotiations, said on X the fifth round of talks had ended “with some but not conclusive progress”.

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“We hope to clarify the remaining issues in the coming days, to allow us to proceed towards the common goal of reaching a sustainable and honourable agreement,” he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had led the fifth round of talks through the Omani mediators, Iranian media reported.

Both Washington and Tehran have taken a tough stance in public over Iran’s intensifying uranium enrichment programme, which could potentially give it scope to build a nuclear weapon, though Tehran says it has no such ambitions and the purposes are purely civilian.

Ahead of the talks, Araqchi 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 had told reporters on Thursday that Trump believes negotiations with Iran are “moving in the right direction”.

Stumbling blocks

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 programme but not enrich uranium, while acknowledging 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 are 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 programme, 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.

Trump in his first term in 2018 ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between major powers and Iran. Since returning to office this year, he has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran and reimposed sweeping US sanctions that continue to hobble the Iranian economy.

Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the 2015 pact’s limits.

Wendy Sherman, a former US undersecretary who led the US negotiating team that reached the 2015 agreement, earlier said that Tehran presents enrichment as a matter of sovereignty.

“I don’t think it is possible to get a deal with Iran where they literally dismantle their programme, give up their enrichment, even though that would be ideal,” she told Reuters.

The cost of failure of the talks could be high. Iran’s arch-foe Israel sees Iran’s nuclear programme as an existential threat and says it would never allow the clerical establishment to obtain nuclear weapons.

Israel’s strategic affairs minister and the head of its foreign intelligence service, Mossad, were also due to be in Rome for talks with the US negotiators, a source aware of the matter told Reuters.

Araqchi said on Thursday that Washington would bear legal responsibility if Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, following a CNN report that Israel might be preparing strikes.