ROME: Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to hold another round of talks next week over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, Iranian state TV reported, as they ended their second round of negotiations in Rome over their decades-long standoff.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff negotiated indirectly through an Omani official who shuttled messages between the two sides, Iranian officials said, a week after a first round of indirect talks in Muscat that both sides described as constructive.
The nuclear negotiations between both countries were held in a “constructive atmosphere”, Iranian media reported.
“The atmosphere of these talks was constructive”, state TV said, adding that further discussions could be held “in the coming days”.
Araqchi and Witkoff interacted briefly at the end of the first round, but officials from the two countries have not held direct negotiations since 2015 under former US president Barack Obama.
Araqchi, in a meeting with his Italian counterpart ahead of the talks, said Iran had always been committed to diplomacy and called on “all parties involved in the talks to seize the opportunity to reach a reasonable and logical nuclear deal”.
“Such an agreement should respect Iran’s legitimate rights and lead to the lifting of unjust sanctions on the country while addressing any doubts about its nuclear work,” Araqchi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
He said in Moscow on Friday that Iran believes reaching an agreement on its nuclear programme with the US is possible as long as Washington is realistic.
“Rome becomes the capital of peace and dialogue,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X. “I encouraged (Araqchi) to follow the path of negotiation against nuclear arms. The hope of the Italian government is that all together may find a positive solution for the Middle East.”
Tehran has however sought to tamp down expectations of a quick deal, after some Iranian officials speculated that sanctions could be lifted soon. Iran’s utmost authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this week he was “neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic”.
For his part, Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Meanwhile, Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Trump, who ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six powers during his first term in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran, has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign on the country since returning to the White House in January.
Washington wants Iran to halt production of highly enriched uranium, which it believes is aimed at building an atomic bomb.
