MUSCAT: Iran and the United States will hold the next round of talks on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme in Rome later this week, Tehran and mediator Oman said on Wednesday.

The arch-foes have held four rounds of nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between them since US President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal during his first term.

“The 5th round of Iran-US talks will take place in Rome this Friday,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said in a post on X.

Iran confirmed it would attend the meeting. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement that Tehran had agreed “to a proposal put forward by (mediator) Oman… to organise another round of Iran-US talks” in the Italian capital on Friday.

The talks aim for a new agreement that would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed doubt this week over the talks. “We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen,” he said.

Denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “a big mistake”, Khamenei added.

His remarks came after the United States’ key negotiator in the talks, Steve Witkoff, voiced opposition to any Iranian uranium enrichment.

“An enrichment programme can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,” he told right-wing Breitbart News in an interview published on May 9.

Iran has repeatedly insisted its right to maintain uranium enrichment was “non-negotiable”. On Sunday, its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran would keep enriching uranium “with or without a deal” on his country’s nuclear programme.

The Islamic republic currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90pc needed for a nuclear warhead.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2025