Iran-US talks updates: Two sides to hold more nuclear discussions

Thank you for joining our live coverage of the second round of the Iran-US talks in Italy’s capital.

You can read our brand new story with all the details from what transpired today in Rome here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon, so let’s bring you up to speed with today’s main developments:

• Iran and the US have wrapped up in Rome their second round of indirect discussions on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the talks, which saw Omani mediators delivering messages between the two delegations in different rooms, were constructive and will move forward.
• He adds the two sides will hold technical meetings at the expert level starting on Wednesday to discuss the design of a framework for a possible deal.
• After that, the main negotiators will hold a third round of talks in Oman to assess the situation on April 26.
• The Omani Foreign Ministry says the two sides are seeking a deal that guarantees Iran does not possess nuclear weapons but maintains its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

Badr al-Busaidi has issued a statement on social media thanking Araghchi and Witkoff “for their highly constructive approach” to the Omani-mediated discussions in Rome today.

“These talks are gaining momentum and now even the unlikely is possible,” the Omani foreign minister said.

The first thing to say is we only know the Iranian side’s thoughts about what happened here. We haven’t had a statement from the US yet about how it views the meetings that took place.

But going into this meeting, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was saying he had serious misgivings about the US, whether they were serious, what their intent was, what they wanted out of this, did they want Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear programme – that would have been a dealbreaker and could have collapsed the whole process.

That’s what Araghchi was saying going in; going out just four hours later, he was talking about a positive atmosphere, revealing that there would be new talks taking place in Oman at the technical level on Wednesday and with Steve Witkoff, the US negotiator, again in Oman on Saturday.

So the Iranian view of things has completely changed.

The process continues; in fact, the pace of the process moves much faster.

Now it is worth saying that all they’ve been talking about – last week in Muscat and here in Rome – is the framework of the discussions and what they want to achieve in them. They have not discussed the nuclear detail.

And having followed with great detail myself the last talks on the nuclear programme that ended 10 years ago, with that deal that Donald Trump later tore up in his first term, I can tell you the devil is in the detail on these things. There is so much detail about the nuclear technicalities, and they have not even started on any of that yet.

Iran’s foreign minister has described the presence of Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in Rome as “useful”.

“But not yet inside the negotiations, because we are still not at the stage where there is a need for that,” Araghchi told state-run IRNA news agency.

“It is natural that the agency will play an important role in a potential agreement, because the responsibility of verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear commitments lies with the agency and we also accept no other entities for verification.”

We previously reported Grossi met the Italian foreign minister in Rome earlier today.

Let’s bring you up to speed with the main developments:

• The second round of indirect talks between Iran and the US in Oman’s diplomatic compound in Rome has wrapped up some four hours after starting.
• Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the Iranian delegation, says the next round will be held in Oman next Saturday, April 26.
• Experts from both sides will begin hold technical negotiations from Wednesday.
• There was no immediate comment from the US delegation, but Araghchi said the talks were held in a “constructive” manner.

We have more lines from Abbas Araghchi, who refrained from judging the negotiations with Trump’s team before Iran learns more from the upcoming technical talks.

He said the Iranian Foreign Ministry will carry on in a “calm and measured manner” and also reiterated lines from a recent speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said Tehran has no cause for excessive optimism or maximalist pessimism at this stage.

“We need to follow a moderate and reasonable path with composure,” the foreign minister said.

“I remain hopeful that, after next week’s technical sessions, we will be in a better position to assess the likelihood of reaching an agreement.”

Many Iranian newspapers dedicated their covers on Saturday, the first day of the working week in Iran, to the talks with the US in Italy.

Some focused on Omani mediation, others directed attention towards all the diplomatic meetings prior to the talks, including yesterday in Russia, while a few pointed to the positive effect on the local markets.

A high-level visit by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khalid bin Salman, a first by a Saudi defence minister since Iran’s 1979 revolution, also grabbed much attention in Iranian media.

He delivered a message by Saudi leaders to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and military commanders. Saudi Arabia is believed to have organised the trip to assure Iran that it opposes potential military attacks on it by the US and Israel, as well as to express support for the nuclear talks with Washington and boost bilateral relations.

As we previously reported, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi kicked off his busy day today with a meeting with his Italian counterpart, Antonio Tajani.

Today’s talks in Rome come a week after the two sides had what Iran called indirect talks in Muscat – the first high-level discussions since US President Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018.

Western countries including the US have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Following his return to office in January, Trump revived his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against Iran.

Last month, he sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging renewed nuclear talks while also warning of military action if diplomacy failed.

“I’m not in a rush” to use the military option, the US president said on Thursday. “I think Iran wants to talk.”

On Friday, Araghchi said Iran “observed a degree of seriousness” on the US side during the first round but questioned their “intentions and motivations”.

In a social media post earlier today, Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Iran was “aware that it is not a smooth path but we take every step with open eyes, relying also on the past experiences”.

The endless waves of US sanctions imposed since Trump left the nuclear deal in May 2018 have battered the Iranian economy and made Iranians considerably poorer.

Inflation has persistently stood at more than 30 percent – and at intervals above 60 percent – in the past few years, with the national currency constantly freefalling.

Each US dollar fetched less than 40,000 rials before Trump torpedoed the deal, but that rate stands at about 1 million rials per greenback at the moment.

All sectors of the Iranian economy are affected by the sanctions, as Iran has been cut off from the international payment system and the US secondary sanctions threaten any person or entity choosing to engage with Iran.

Even imports of medicine and medical equipment have not been spared. The US only intensified its sanctions as Iran experienced the deadliest COVID-19 pandemic of the Middle East.

Iranians are banned from most international services, including software and cloud platforms, web services such as education and online learning businesses, freelance work services, and even gaming platforms.

Antonio Tajani has commented on social media following his meeting with Araghchi in Rome earlier today.

The Italian foreign minister said he had told his Iranian counterpart “to continue on the path of negotiations against nuclear weapons”.

Tajani added “the Italian government hopes that together we can reach a positive solution for the Middle East”.