The American Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, at a summit in Florida, Miami Beach, on Feb. 20, 2025. (Credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP)
The next round of talks between the United States and Iran on Iran’s nuclear program will take place Friday in Rome, Oman's chief diplomat announced Wednesday. Oman is mediating the discussions between Washington and Tehran and confirmed the talks. Washington and Tehran, adversaries for four decades, began negotiations on April 12 to establish a new agreement to regulate Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting the sanctions that are strangling its economy.
“The fifth round of discussions between Iran and the United States will take place in Rome this Friday, May 23,” Badr al-Bussaidi wrote on his X account. In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei indicated in a statement that Iran had agreed “to a proposal made by Oman ... to organize a new round of Iran-U.S. talks” on Friday in Rome.
These talks, under the mediation of the Sultanate of Oman, represent the highest level of engagement between the two parties since Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, concluded three years earlier. Western countries, led by the United States and Israel, considered by experts the only nuclear power in the Middle East, suspect Iran of wanting to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran rejects these allegations, advocating a right to nuclear energy for civilian purposes. American officials have publicly opposed any uranium enrichment by Iran. Tehran, which defends the right to civil nuclear power, considers this demand a red line, against the provisions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory.
Skepticism
On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, expressed skepticism about the outcome of these talks. “We do not think [the current talks] will lead to any result,” he said during a speech in Tehran, adding that denying Iran's right to enrich uranium was “a big mistake.”
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, leading the negotiations for Iran, stated that his country would continue to enrich uranium “with or without an agreement” with the U.S. His American counterpart, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, had earlier stated that the United States “could not allow even one percent of enrichment capacity” for Iran.
The American negotiators should refrain from “talking nonsense,” Ali Khamenei, the ultimate decision-maker on strategic issues, rebuked on Tuesday.
The multilateral agreement concluded in 2015 with Iran, which provided for the regulation of Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting international sanctions, became effectively void following the U.S. withdrawal decided in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term. The agreement, which expires in October 2025, includes the possibility of re-establishing international sanctions if Iran does not comply with its commitments. Iran is currently enriching uranium to 60 percent, far beyond the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear agreement, though a 90 percent level is needed for military use.