Rome - Saba:
The United States and Iran are scheduled to resume talks on Saturday regarding Tehran's nuclear program, a week after a first round that both sides described as "constructive."Rome will host the talks, which will feature Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and are mediated by the Sultanate of Oman. This is the second high-level meeting between the two countries since US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the landmark nuclear agreement in 2018.
Trump has resumed his "maximum pressure" policy of imposing sanctions on Iran, and in March, he sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for nuclear talks under threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Trump said Thursday that he "believed Iran wants to talk."
For his part, Araghchi, one of the architects of the 2015 nuclear deal, said Friday that Iran "noted a degree of seriousness" from the Americans during the first round, but he questioned their intentions.
"Although we have serious doubts about the intentions and motives of the American side, we will participate in tomorrow's negotiations anyway," he said during a press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow.
It is worth noting that during Trump's first term, Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers, which stipulated the easing of international sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Tehran adhered to the agreement for a year after Trump's withdrawal, before gradually scaling back its commitments.
Araghchi was a negotiator in the 2015 agreement. His counterpart in Rome, Witkoff, is a real estate mogul who Trump also tasked with conducting talks on Ukraine.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, well above the 3.67 percent limit stipulated in the agreement, but still below the 90 percent threshold required for military use.
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