DUBAI
\nIranian and US negotiators resumed talks on Friday in Rome to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions, Iranian media reported, despite Tehran warning that a new deal might not be possible amid mutually exclusive demands.
\nThe stakes are high for both sides. President Don\u00adald Trump wants to curtail Tehran\u2019s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a reg\u00adi\u00adonal nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel.
\nThe Islamic Republic, for its part, wants to be rid of devastating sanctions on its oil-based economy. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to lead a fifth round of talks, through Omani mediators.
\n\u201cThis round of talks is especially sensitive … we need to see what issues will be raised by the other party … and based on that, we will proceed with our positions,\u201d Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told state TV in Rome.
\nBoth Washington and Tehran have taken a tough stance in public over Iran\u2019s intensifying uranium enrichment programme, which could potentially give it scope to build a nuclear warhead, even though Tehran says it has no such ambitions and the purposes are purely civilian.
\nIran insists the talks are indirect, but US officials have said the discussions \u2014 including the latest round on May 11 in Oman \u2014 have been both \u201cdirect and indirect\u201d.
\nAhead of the talks, Araqchi wrote on X: \u201c…Zero nuclear weapons = we Do have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal. Time to decide.\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Trump believes negotiations with Iran are \u201cmoving in the right direction\u201d.
\nIranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on matters of state, rejected demands to stop refining uranium as \u201cexcessive and outrageous\u201d, warning that such talks were unlikely to yield results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBAI Iranian and US negotiators resumed talks on Friday in Rome to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions, Iranian media reported, despite Tehran warning that a new deal might not be possible amid mutually exclusive demands. The stakes are high for both sides. President Don\u00adald Trump wants to curtail Tehran\u2019s potential to produce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-480680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n