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The American envoy Steve Witkoff and the first Iranian diplomat began a second series of talks while the Trump administration presses the Islamic Republic to accept an agreement to overthrow its nuclear advances.
The negotiations on Saturday in Rome between Witkoff and the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Arabhchi are essential to put an end to a confrontation of several years between Washington and Tehran which risks triggering the next conflict of the Middle East.
According to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oman was mediaking between the longtime opponents of his residence of the ambassador to Rome, where the two delegations had discussions in separate documents.
After indirect talks in Oman last weekend – the first between a Trump administration and the Republic – the United States and Iran described discussions as positive and constructive. But this week, US officials have given 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 within the framework of the International Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Araghchi said Iran was “completely serious” in the talks in Rome and would not change its position. He urged the United States to demonstrate “coherence” in his mailbox.
“We received contradictory signals from the United States,” he told Iranian journalists on Friday. “For us, what is said at the negotiation table is the norm.” He added that “we have clearly articulated our position in response to these American positions which are unacceptable for us”.
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.
