Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said, as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was “extremely cautious” about the potential success of the negotiations aimed at resolving a decades-long nuclear standoff.
US President Donald Trump has seemed confident in reaching a new pact with Iran that would guarantee Tehran does not make a nuclear bomb.
On Saturday, Araghchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of indirect talks in Oman’s capital, Muscat, through Omani mediators for about six hours. This comes a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical … there are still differences, both on major issues and details,” Araghchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides … However, our optimism about the success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon”.
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araghchi said Oman would announce the venue.
An Iranian official briefed about the talks told the Reuters news agency earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious”.
The only aim of these talks, Araghchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief”.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told state TV that the country’s defence and missile programmes were not being discussed during the negotiations in Oman.
“The question of defence capacities and the country’s missiles is not [on the agenda] and has not been raised in the indirect talks with the United States,” Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday.
Speaking earlier on board Air Force One, en route to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, Trump also expressed cautious optimism.
“The Iran situation is coming out very well,” he said. “We have had a lot of talks with them, and I think we are going to have a deal. I would much rather have a deal than the other alternative.”
But Trump also repeated threats, stressing that military options remained on the table if diplomacy failed, saying: “There are some people that want to make a different kind of a deal, a much nastier deal, and I don’t want that to happen to Iran if we can avoid it.”
Tensions have remained high since Trump withdrew from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers in 2018, prompting a series of escalations. Iran has since abandoned all limits on its nuclear programme, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity – near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Western countries, including the US, have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment programme or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalising the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
But Tehran insists its defence capabilities, like its missile programme, are non-negotiable.
