Top Iranian and US negotiators will resume talks on Sunday to address disputes over Tehran’s nuclear programme, in a push for progress as Washington hardens its stance ahead of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East visit.
Though Tehran and Washington both have said they prefer diplomacy to resolve the decades-long dispute, they remain deeply divided on several red lines that negotiators will have to circumvent to reach a new nuclear deal and avert future military action.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Wiesner will hold the fourth round of talks in Muscat through Omani mediators, despite Washington taking a tough stance in public that Iranian officials said would not help the negotiations.
Witkoff said that Washington’s red line is: “No enrichment. That means dismantlement, no weaponization,” requiring the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan.
“If they are not productive on Sunday, then they won’t continue and we’ll have to take a different route,” Witkoff said in the interview.
“Iran continues negotiations in good faith … if these talks aim to limit Iran’s nuclear rights, I state clearly that Iran will not back down from any of its rights,” Araqchi said.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment programme or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
A senior Iranian official close to the negotiating team said that US demands for “zero enrichment and dismantling Iran’s nuclear sites would not help in progressing the negotiations”.
“What the US says publicly differs from what is said in negotiations,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
