The announcement comes as chief of nuclear watchdog IAEA arrives in Tehran for talks that will revolve round accessibility for inspectors.
Iran has confirmed that its subsequent spherical of nuclear talks with the US this weekend might be held in Rome after earlier confusion over the place the negotiations can be carried out.
Wednesday’s announcement on Iranian state tv got here as Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian formally accepted the resignation of considered one of his vice presidents, who had served as Tehran’s key negotiator in its 2015 nuclear cope with world powers.
The pinnacle of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, additionally arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks that would embody negotiations over what entry his Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA) inspectors can get beneath any proposed deal.
The state TV announcement mentioned Oman will once more mediate the talks on Saturday in Rome. Oman’s overseas minister served as an interlocutor between the 2 sides throughout negotiations final weekend in Muscat, the Omani capital.
On Monday, some officers initially recognized Rome as internet hosting the negotiations, just for Iran to insist early on Tuesday that its group would return to Oman. US officers thus far haven’t mentioned publicly the place the talks might be held, although US President Donald Trump did name Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Tuesday whereas the ruler was on a visit to the Netherlands.
The negotiations come amid hovering tensions between the US and Iran over the latter’s nuclear improvement.
Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash air strikes concentrating on Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officers more and more have warned that they may pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to close weapons-grade ranges.
‘Like a puzzle’
Grossi arrived in Tehran for conferences with Pezeshkian and others, which can probably be held on Thursday.
Shortly earlier than his arrival, Grossi warned that Iran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb.
“It’s like a puzzle. They’ve the items, and in the future they may ultimately put them collectively,” Grossi instructed French newspaper Le Monde in an interview printed on Wednesday.
“There’s nonetheless a option to go earlier than they get there. However they’re not far off, that must be acknowledged,” he mentioned.
Because the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018 with Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord, Iran has deserted all limits on its programme, and enriches uranium to as much as 60 % purity – close to weapons-grade ranges of 90 %.
Surveillance cameras put in by the IAEA have been disrupted, whereas Iran has barred among the Vienna-based company’s most skilled inspectors. Iranian officers have additionally more and more threatened that they may pursue atomic weapons, one thing that Western international locations and the IAEA have been anxious about for years.
Any potential deal between Iran and the US probably would want to depend on the IAEA’s experience to make sure Tehran’s compliance. And regardless of tensions between Iran and the company, its entry has not been fully revoked.
‘Non-negotiable’
Iran’s Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday warned the US about taking contradictory stances within the talks.
His remarks got here after feedback from US Center East envoy Steve Witkoff, who this week initially steered a deal might see Iran return to three.67 % uranium enrichment – like within the 2015 deal reached by the administration of former US President Barack Obama. Witkoff then adopted up by saying, “A cope with Iran will solely be accomplished if it’s a Trump deal.”
“Iran should cease and remove its nuclear enrichment and weaponisation program,” Witkoff wrote on the social platform X. “It’s crucial for the world that we create a troublesome, truthful deal that can endure, and that’s what President Trump has requested me to do.”
In response, Araghchi issued a warning to the US.
“Enrichment is an actual and accepted problem, and we’re prepared for trust-building about potential issues,” Araghchi famous. However shedding the best to counterpoint in any respect “is non-negotiable”, he mentioned.
