A third round of interviews between Iran and the United States on Tehran's nuclear activities ended on Saturday after several hours of indirect negotiations, partly in writing, between high officials and teams of technical experts of both sides.
Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Foreign Minister, said in an interview with the Iranian state television that the interviews were “very serious” and focused on the details of a potential agreement. He said they were disagreed between Tehran and Washington, but that he was “cautiously optimistic about the fact that we can progress”.
Araghchi said that the negotiations will resume next Saturday with Oman who continues to mediate the interviews, including Steve Witkoff, special correspondent for President Trump and the teams of experts.
“The atmosphere of the negotiations was very serious and productive,” he said. “We moved away from some of the biggest problems, but this does not mean that we have solved all our differences.”
“We disagree on large and small issues,” he added, “but this week there will be discussions in capital to reduce our differences”.
A high American official said that the next round of interviews would be in Europe, with Oman who facilitated. The official said the interviews lasted four hours and called them productive.
“I think we will make an agreement with Iran. No one else could do it,” Trump foresee in an interview with Time Magazine published on Friday. Trump abandoned a previous nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018 during his first term, saying it was an imperfect agreement.
The talks have the potential to remodel regional and global safety by reducing the possibility of an Israeli attack supported by the United States to Iranian nuclear structures and preventing Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. An agreement could also transform the economic and political panorama of Iran by loosening American sanctions and I open the country to foreign investors.
What is going on on Saturday?
Steve Witkoff, sent to the Middle East of Mr. Trump; Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Foreign Minister; And team of technical experts of both sides met in the sultanate of the Gulf of Oman, who is mediating the interviews. Iranian State Media reported that the interviews began around noon.
This round included the “speeches of experts” of walnuts and bolts, which bring together nuclear and financial teams on both sides to have technical details, such as the monitoring of Iranian nuclear structures, its levels of enrichment of the uranium and what would happen to its ups of Urani highly enriched with Urairaium, together with loose penalties.
Mr. Trump himself defined the goal of negotiations how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The officials of his administration, however, have sent contrasting messages on what it means.
This goal would not face other concerns that Israel has with the advanced missile program of Iran, its support for proxy militias in the Middle East and its hostility towards Israel.
A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghai, said Saturday that the question of the country's defense and missile skills “had not been and will not be collected in indirect negotiations with the United States”.
What's at stake?
A new nuclear agreement could delay or avoid a wider conflict between Iran and Israel and the United States. Israel and Iran exchanged direct attacks since the war in Gaza began in 2023.
Last week, the New York Times reported that Israel had planned to attack Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month, but was won by Mr. Trump, who instead wanted to negotiate an agreement with Tehran.
Trump, in his temporal interview, said he had not stopped the attack of Israel.
“But I didn't put at ease for them, because I think we can make an agreement without the attack. I hope we can,” he said. “It is possible that we will have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
Iran has enriched the uranium about 60 percent of purity, just under the levels necessary to produce a weapon. He has accumulated enough to build several bombs if he chooses weapons, according to the United Nations nuclear dog dog, the International Agency for Atomic Energy.
Iran states that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and Aiea said she had not found signs of weapon.
If its nuclear structures were attacked, Iran said that it would have reacted fiercely and would consider the idea of leaving the United Nations Treaty on the non -proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The Iranian economy and the future of its 90 million people are also online.
Years of sanctions have created chronic inflation, exacerbated by bad economic management and corruption. Now, many Iranians claim to feel trapped in a descending spiral and hope that a US-Iran agreement can help.
What happened in previous talks?
The first round of nuclear interviews was in Oman two weeks ago, followed by a second round in Rome last weekend.
Both parties said that the negotiations were constructive and that they were moving in the right direction.
Iranian officials have declared that they are willing to reduce the enrichment levels to those specified in the 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration – 3.67 percent – around the level necessary to produce fuel for nuclear power plants.
What are the attacker points?
The question if allowing Iran to continue enriching the uranium has divided the councilors of Mr. Trump.
Witkoff described a possible agreement that would allow Iran to enrich Uranium at the low levels necessary to produce fuel for energy, together with monitoring.
But in an interview in Podcast last week, the secretary of state Marco Rubio suggested that Iran could have a civil nuclear program without enriching the uranium at national level – importing enriched uranium, as other countries do.
Mike Waltz, director for national security, said that the United States were looking for a total dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program, a position that Iran considered a non -start -up.
Iran has invited the United States to invest in its nuclear program and help to build another 19 nuclear reactors as an extra security measure, according to Mr. Araghchi, the Foreign Minister.
“The opportunity of trillion dollars that our economy presents could be open to US companies,” said Araghchi in a speech that has shared on social media. “This includes companies that can help us generate clean electricity from non -hydrocarbon sources.”
Accepting limits on how much the enriched Iran of uranium can possess and which level can enrich Signor Trump to the criticism that is only replicating the key elements of the nuclear agreement of the Obama era.
Analysts say that some possible measures to improve the old agreement may include more rigorous monitoring of Iran's nuclear activities, joint venture to manage nuclear structures and make Iran's guarantees permanent.
How did we get here?
The two parts entered the negotiations with deep mistrust.
The previous agreement between Iran and the United States and other world powers was called a joint action plan.
He put in place measures to prevent Iran from arming his nuclear program by limiting the enrichment of Uranium to 3.5 percent, transferring Uranium stocks enriched to Russia and allowing the monitoring of the cameras and inspections by the AIEAA
The European companies retired from Iran and the banks stopped working with Iran, fearing US sanctions.
About a year after reaching the agreement, Iran, not seeing any financial benefit, moved away from its obligations and increased its levels the enrichment of the uranium, gradually reaching 60 percent.
What comes later?
So far, it seems that there is a political will to both sides to reach a new agreement and the discussions should continue.
The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in the past had excluded negotiations with Mr. Trump, authorized the interviews and said that the negotiation team has its support.
But an agreement is not necessarily around the corner.
The interviews could still break on a technical level, which was the most demanding part of the previous negotiations.
It is also possible that a provisional agreement can be reached to freeze the enrichment of uranium while a permanent agreement is eliminated.
Lara Jakes AND David E. Sanger Contributed relationships.