With stern warning to US, Iran FM heads to Rome for new talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has headed to Rome to participate in the 5th round of indirect negotiations with the United States over the country’s peaceful nuclear program.

Araghchi departed Tehran in the early hours of Friday to meet US special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, in the Italian capital with the mediation of Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi.

The Iranian foreign minister is accompanied by a high-ranking delegation consisting of legal, political, and banking and financial experts to Rome.

Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, and a number of other diplomats and experts were among the members of the delegation accompanying Araghchi.

The Iran-US negotiations are scheduled to kick off in the Italian capital at 01:00 p.m. local time Friday.

Before departure, Araghchi reiterated the Islamic Republic’s resolve to continue its uranium enrichment program and stressed that there would be no deal if the US side stuck with an excessive demand to slash Iran’s legitimate right to enrichment to zero.

“Set to travel to Rome for 5th round of indirect talks with the United States. Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science: Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal,” Araghchi wrote on X.

“Time to decide…,” he added

Tehran and Washington have already held four rounds of indirect negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, mediated by Oman, amid repeated shifts in US stances, which have prompted Iranian officials to criticize the “contradictory” statements made by their Americans counterparts.

On Wednesday, the US State Department said people or entities that provide Iran with certain construction-related materials would face sanctions in the latest of its coercive measures amid the ongoing talks. 

The administration of US President Donald Trump has time and again insisted on demanding “complete cessation” of Iran’s peaceful uranium enrichment activities.

Iranian officials have stressed that the talks “will lead nowhere” if Washington insists that Tehran drop its uranium enrichment to zero. 

Tehran says Washington is complicating negotiations by expressing views in public different from what is discussed privately during talks.

During his first, 2017-21 term as president, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 deal between Iran and world countries that placed strict limits on Tehran’s enrichment activities in exchange for relief from sanctions.

Trump, who branded the 2015 accord one-sided in Iran’s favor, also reimposed sweeping US sanctions on Iran. The Islamic Republic responded by scaling back its voluntary restrictions on the country’s nuclear energy program.