There is a clear disagreement ahead of negotiations this weekend.
Negotiations for the next round between the US and Iran are aimed at solving a decade-long nuclear standoff. This is scheduled to take place in Rome, following the previous turmoil held on Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragci confirmed the location in an interview with state-run news television on Wednesday, adding that Oman will continue to mediate the debate. Araguchi and Steve Witkoff, the envoy of the Middle East of the US President Donald Trump, held their first round of indirect talks in Muscat last weekend.
A spokesman for Iranian Foreign Ministry previously told the state communications agency IRNA that the speech would resume in Muscat, but Press Television later reported that the venue had been changed to the Italian capital.
The Epoch Times has contacted the US State Department for further details.
Both sides described the initial talk as “constructive”, but tensions quickly resurfaced as to whether Iran should be allowed to continue enriching uranium to arms-grade levels.
The disagreement follows a series of statements from Witkov, which revealed that the president hopes Iran, the major national sponsor of terrorism, will completely abandon enrichment as a condition of the agreement.
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His post showed a transition from his comments the day before in an interview with Fox News. He proposed focusing on keeping the level of uranium refinement in Iran, which is suitable for civilian nuclear reactors, at 3.67%. That limit was a key component of the 2015 Iran’s nuclear deal, and the Trump administration abandoned it by saying it was unenforceable and ineffective in thwarting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Araghchi responded on Wednesday by refusing to compromise on the enrichment issue.
Araghchi added that he hopes Witkoff will clarify “the real position at the negotiation table.”
“If (Iranians) don’t make a deal, there’s a bombing,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview on March 30. “They’re going to bomb things they’ve never seen before. If they don’t make a deal, they could potentially do secondary tariffs like I did four years ago.”
In 2018, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal that imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The withdrawal was part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at blocking Iran’s access to nuclear weapons and reducing its ability to fund terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houtis, the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
