Iran and the United States concluded a second round of negotiations on Saturday over Tehran’s nuclear programme, US and Iranian officials said.
There is no immediate readout on how the talks went at the Omani Embassy in Rome’s Camilluccia neighbourhood, but the two nations agreed to hold another round of talks next week.
After the talks, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iranian state TV that Iran “will continue the path of the talks with seriousness” to see crippling economic sanctions on his country lifted.
“Iran will continue as far as talks go on in a constructive and purposeful way,” he added.
The closed-door negotiations were led by Steve Witkoff, the Mideast envoy of President Donald Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and were mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.
Araghchi met with his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani shortly before the talks started. Tajani posted on X, expressing his hopes about a successful outcome.
Araghchi said the negotiations lasted about four hours, describing the meeting as ‘positive’ and ‘constructive’.
The top Iranian diplomat noted that Tehran and Washington were able to exchange and reach a better understanding on a number of principles and objectives.
He also called Saturday’s talks “a step forward”, adding that this progress allows them to move further to the next phase and begin “expert level” negotiations.
Technical and expert level negotiations are set to begin on Wednesday in Oman. On Saturday, a review is scheduled to assess the outcome of those discussions.
The fact that talks are even happening represents a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between Iran and the United States.
Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, setting off years of attacks and negotiations that failed to restore the accord that drastically limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Additional sources • AP
