Nuclear dispute: Iran and USA agree on the third round of talks
The USA and Iran want to continue their negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program. The two countries, which have repeatedly covered threats and allegations for decades, were accompanied by no recognizable progress after the second round in Rome. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in Oman on Saturday next week. The Arab state conveys between the two delegations.
The second round under the direction of the two chief negotiators, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghtschi and the US specialist Steve Witkoff, was over after four hours. The talks took place on neutral terrain in the Omani embassy in Rome.
Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the USA began
Araghatschi then reported: « The negotiations are making good progress. » It did not become more specific. There was initially no comment from the US government to the course of the interviews.
Trump threatens military consequences
The dispute over the Iranian nuclear program has been a permanent issue of international politics for many years. Iran is accused of working on the construction of its own nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this. US President Donald Trump threatened the country several times with military consequences if the talks fail. So far, only Israel has nuclear weapons in the region.
In 2015, Iran had already concluded an agreement with a six-man group (USA, Russia, Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany), which in return for concessions in the nuclear program provided for the relaxation of international sanctions. In Trump’s first term, however, the United States unilaterally terminated the agreements. As a result, Iran no longer adhered to it. Now Trump is penetrating a new agreement.
Iran rejects « surrender »
The US special envoy Witkoff recently emphasized that an agreement would only come about if Tehran fully stops uranium enrichment and his weapon development program.
Iran rejects this. A consultant by the top Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, Ali Shamchani, wrote on the platform X: « We want a balanced agreement, no surrender. » He called for the complete cancellation of the sanctions and an end of threats from Israel and the USA against his country.
Further conflict points are the Iranian rocket program and the Middle East policy, in particular the support of militant Islamist groups against the Iranian archenemy Israel.
Before the official third round of negotiations next Saturday, there will be discussions at expert level between both sides on Wednesday.
Oman continues
A spokesman for the Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs named a « fair, permanent and binding agreement that makes Iran completely free of nuclear weapons and sanctions and its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy ». Such an agreement would be in the interest of everyone involved in the region and also at the international level, it said.
