US and Iranian officials began a fourth round of negotiations in Oman on Sunday, aiming to reach a new agreement on Tehran's nuclear program.
Talks in Muscat, which take place one month since the discussions were first held, have commenced on Sunday, Iranian state media reported. They follow a weeklong pause after a scheduled meeting in Rome was postponed due to what Oman's foreign minister, who's been mediating the discussions, said were “logistical reasons.”
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Though earlier rounds were described as constructive, recent remarks may have exposed deeper rifts, casting doubt on a potential agreement. Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy and his lead negotiator with Iran, told Breitbart News on Thursday that Iran's uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan must be dismantled.
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“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again,” Witkoff said, raising a demand Iran has firmly rejected as a red line. “That's our red line. No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized the US officials for their shifting remarks but signaled that a breakthrough was still possible.
“We're hopeful that this round will bring us to a decisive point,” Araghchi told Iran's national TV ahead of the talks on Sunday. “Unfortunately, we're hearing many contradictory statements from the other side. Inside the negotiations and outside, in the media, their positions are constantly changing, and it's one of the challenges of these negotiations.”
On Saturday, Araghchi reaffirmed Tehran's position that it isn't seeking nuclear weapons but will never relinquish its right to “the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including enrichment.”
“If the goal of these negotiations is to ensure Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons, that's already a given, so reaching an agreement is entirely within reach,” Araghchi said in Doha during a trip that included a stop in Saudi Arabia, where he briefed officials on the talks.
Trump, who's scheduled to visit the Middle East this week, has intensified his pressure campaign against Iran, imposing new sanctions on its oil industry and threatening to penalize foreign entities that keep purchasing Iranian oil.
The US President has vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb and is pushing to replace the 2015 deal, which had curbed Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, and which he abandoned in 2018.
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