A third round of conversations between Iran and the United States about Tehran’s nuclear activities concluded on Saturday after several hours of negotiations, partly in writing, between senior officials and teams of technical experts on both sides.
Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister of Iran, said in an interview with Iran’s state television that the conversations were “very serious” and focused on the details of a possible agreement. He said there were disagreements between Tehran and Washington, but that it was “cautiously optimistic that we could progress.”
Mr. Araghchi said the negotiations would resume next Saturday with Oman that continues to mediate the conversations, which include Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy and expert teams. But while American negotiators agreed that the conversations would continue, did not give time, according to a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss delicate negotiations.
“The atmosphere of the negotiations was very serious and productive,” he said. “We move away from some of the biggest problems, but it does not mean that we have solved all our differences.”
“We have disagreements in large and small issues,” he added, “but there will be discussions in the capitals this week to reduce our differences.”
The high American official said that the next round of conversations would be in Europe, and Oman facilitates. The official said the conversations lasted four hours and called them productive.
Another person familiar with the negotiations said that the next roller probably occurs in the next two weeks, but that the American side needed some time to consider the information and proposals of the Iranians. The American side wants to move conversations to a more convenient location closer to the United States, the person said.
Both the American and Iranian teams presented a framework for negotiations and discussed a variety of issues on Saturday, they thought that nothing was agreed, the person added.
“I think we are going to make a deal with Iran. No one else could do that,” Trump predicted in an interview with Time magazine published Friday. Trump left a previous nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018, lasted his first term, saying he was a Wedow Flaed.
The conversations have the potential to remodel regional and global security by reducing the possibility of an Israeli supporting attack in the United States against Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran’s prevention of producing a nuclear weapon. An agreement could also transform Iran’s economic and political landscape by facilitating US sanctions and opening the country to foreign investors.
What happened on Saturday?
Steve Witkoff, sent by Middle East of Trump; Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Foreign Minister; And teams of technical experts from both sides with the sultanate of the Gulf of Oman, which is mediating the conversations. Iranian state media reported that conversations began around noon.
This round included the “expert talks” of nuts and screws, which gathered nuclear and financial teams from both sides to eliminate technical details, such as monitoring Iran’s nuclear facilities and what wonders or succeeding with their” Along with the ease of sanctions.
Mr. Trump himself has defined the objective of negotiations such as preventing them from obstructing nuclear weapons. The officials of their administration, however, have sent mixed messages about what that means.
That closest goal of preventing Iran having a nuclear weapon would not address other concerns about Iran’s advanced missile program, their support for proxy militias around the Middle East and its hostility towards Israel.
A spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghai, said on Saturday that the country’s defense issue and missile capabilities “had not been raised and will not be raised in indirect negotiations with the United States.”
What is at stake?
A new nuclear agreement could delay or avoid a broader conflict between Iran and Israel and the United States. Israel and Iran have exchanged direct attacks since the war began in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The New York Times reported last week that Israel had planned to attack Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month, but the Israelis were exhausted by Trump, who wanted to negotiate an agreement with Tehran.
Trump, in his time interview, said he did not stop Israel’s attack.
“But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, because I think we can make a deal with the attack. I hope we can,” he said. “We may have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
Iran has been enriching uranium in around 60 percent purity, just below the necessary levels to produce a weapon. It has accumulated enough to build several bombs if it decides to arm, according to the UN Nuclear Control Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran says that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and OIEA has said that it has not found signs of weapons.
If its nuclear facilities are attacked, Iran has said that it would be a retaliation of Fiercey and that the UN treaty would leave in the non -proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Iran’s economy and the future of their 90 million people are also at stake.
Years of sanctions have created chronic inflation, exacerbated by bad economic management and corruption. Now, many Iranians say they feel trapped in a descending spiral and hope that an agreement between the United States and will help.
What happened in the previous talks?
The first round of nuclear conversations was two weeks ago in Oman, followed by a second round in Rome last weekend.
Both parties have said that the negotiations have been constructive and that they were moving in the right direction.
Iranian officials have said that they are willing to reduce the enrichment levels to those specific in the 2015 nuclear agreement with the Obama administration, 3.67 percent, around the necessary level to produce fuel for nuclear centrals.
What are the points of conflict?
The question of whether they will continue to enrich uranium has divided Mr. Trump’s advisors.
Mr. Witkoff has described a possible agreement that would allow Iran to enrich uranium at the low levels necessary to produce fuel for energy, along with monitoring.
But in a recent podcast interview, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, suggested that Iran could have a civil nuclear program without enriching Uranium domesticamia, importing enriched uranium, as others do.
And Michael Waltz, the national security advisor, said that the United States was looking for a total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, a position that Iran has considered a non -dizzy.
Iran invited the United States to invest in its nuclear program and help build 19 more nuclear reactors as an additional security measure, according to Mr. Araghchi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“The Billion dollar opportunity presented our economy can be open to US companies,” Araghchi said in a speech he shared on social networks. “This includes companies that can help us generate clean electricity from non -hydrocarbon sources.”
To agree on the limits of how much the enriched uranium that Iranian can possess can possess and to what level can enrich expose Mr. Trump to the criticism that he is only replicating the key elements of the Nuclear Agreement of the Obama era, which Trump has condemned as “one of the sausages and most of the transactions that the United States has celebrated.”
Analysts say that some possible measures to improve the Obama-Ise agreement include a stricter monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities, joint companies to administer nuclear facilities and make Iran’s guarantee permanent.
How do we get here?
The two parties entered the negotiations with a deep distrust.
The previous agreement between Iran and the United States and other world powers, signed the duration of the Obama administration, was called the joint comprehensive action plan.
He put measures in his place to prevent them from arranging their nuclear program by limiting the enrichment of uranium to 3.5 percent, transfer the stock of rings enriched to Russia and allowing monitoring cameras and inspections by the Iaea
European companies retired from Iran, and banks stopped working with Iran, fearing US sanctions.
Approximately a year after Trump left the nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018, Iran, without seeing any financial benefit, moved away from its obligations and increased its levels enrichment of uranium, graduality reached 60 percent.
What comes next?
Until now, there seems to be political will on both sides to reach a new agreement, and the discussions will continue.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, who had forbidden to negotiate with Trump in the past, authorized the conversations and said the negotiation team has its support.
But an agreement is not necessarily around the corner.
The conversations could still be broken at the technical level, which was the most challenging part of the previous negotiations.
It is also possible that an interim agreement can be reached to freeze uranium enrichment, while a permanent agreement is Hazed.
Lara Jakes and David E. Sanger Contributed reports.
