Iran and the United States concluded a second cycle of negotiations on the Tehran nuclear program on Saturday, US and Iranian officials said.
There is no immediate reading on how talks took place at the Omani Embassy in the Rome district of Rome, but the two nations agreed to hold another series of discussions next week.
After the talks, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said on Iranian state television that Iran “will continue to make talks with serious” to see paralyzing economic sanctions on his country.
“Iran will continue with regard to the talks in a constructive and determined manner,” he added.
The closed-closed negotiations were led by Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy of President Donald Trump and the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi, and were publicized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Omanai Badr al-Busaidi.
Araghchi met his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani shortly before the start of the talks. Tajani posted on X, expressing his hopes on a successful result.
Araghchi said the negotiations lasted approximately four hours, describing the meeting as “positive” and “constructive”.
The first Iranian diplomat noted that Tehran and Washington were able to exchange and better understand a certain number of principles and objectives.
He also called on Saturday “one step forward” talks, adding that these progress allows them to go to the next phase and start “expert level” negotiations.
Technical and expert negotiations are expected to start Oman on Wednesday. On Saturday, an examination should assess the result of these discussions.
The fact that talks occur represent a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between Iran and the United States.
Trump, during his first mandate, unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear agreement with the global powers in 2018, triggering years of attacks and negotiations which have not succeeded in restoring the agreement which considerably limited the enrichment of uranium by Tehran in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Additional sources • AP
