A third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear activities concluded Saturday after several hours of negotiations, partly in writing, between senior officials and teams of technical experts from both sides.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said the talks were “very serious” and focused on details of a potential agreement. He said disagreements remained between Tehran and Washington, but he was “cautiously optimistic that we can progress.”
Mr Araghchi said the negotiations would resume next Saturday with Oman continuing to mediate the talks, which include Steve Witkoff, US president Donald Trump’s special envoy, and the teams of experts. But while the US negotiators agreed that the talks would continue, no timing was given, according to a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Both the US and Iranian teams put forward a framework for the negotiations and discussed a range of issues on Saturday, though nothing was agreed to, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
A win ‘for democrats all around the world’. Canada’s Mark Carney prepares to take on Trump
Massive blackout raises questions about Spanish energy strategy
Westminster never forgets its murdered MPs - which is why Kneecap’s comments could not be overlooked
Spain power outage: People trapped in lifts and metros while ATMs go dark as country left ‘stunned’
“I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran. Nobody else could do that,” Mr Trump predicted in an interview with Time magazine published Friday. Mr Trump abandoned a previous nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 during his first term, saying it was a flawed agreement.
[ Iran port explosion: Death toll rises to at least 25Opens in new window ]
The talks have the potential to reshape regional and global security by reducing the chance of a US-backed Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and preventing Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. A deal could also transform Iran’s economic and political landscape by easing US sanctions and opening the country to foreign investors.
Mr Witkoff, Mr Araghchi and teams of technical experts from both sides met in the Gulf sultanate of Oman, which is mediating the talks.
This round included the nuts-and-bolts “expert talks”, which brought together nuclear and financial teams from both sides to hash out technical details, such as the monitoring of Iran’s nuclear facilities, and what would happen to its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, along with easing sanctions.
Mr Trump has defined the objective of the negotiations as preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
