WANA (May 23) – Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, who has so far held four rounds of indirect talks with Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump, mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi, departed for Italy to attend the fifth round of negotiations, which will be held in Rome.

 

Early this morning (Friday), the Foreign Minister and head of Iran’s negotiating team, leading a political delegation comprised of legal, political, and banking and financial experts, left for Rome to resume the fifth round of these discussions with the U.S. President’s special envoy.

 

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Deputy Minister for Political Affairs; Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy for Legal and International Affairs; Esmaeil Baghaei, the Ministry’s Spokesperson; and several other diplomats and experts are among the members of the delegation accompanying the Foreign Minister.

 

The talks are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in Rome, at a time when, over the past week, American officials—including President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. spokespersons—have claimed that the only acceptable outcome of the negotiations with Iran is the complete abandonment of uranium enrichment—a position that crosses Iran’s red line.

 

This stance, which American officials have taken, was quickly responded to by Iranian officials, who said Iran has no intention of making nuclear bombs and its nuclear program is peaceful. Araghchi has also declared that Iran’s uranium enrichment activities will persist with or without a new agreement.

 

Iran’s main demand in these talks is the effective lifting of the U.S.’s unilateral and unlawful sanctions. As a responsible member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran considers uranium enrichment its legitimate right and insists on preserving the nuclear fuel cycle.

 

Sources close to the Iranian negotiating team say that the atmosphere of the talks has grown more serious since the third round, which was held on April 25 in Muscat. The slowing pace of negotiations from this point forward is natural, as both sides must now battle over every single word.

 

The first round of these indirect talks between Iran and the U.S., mediated by Oman, was held on April 12 in Muscat, and the second round of talks took place in Rome on Saturday, April 19, again with Oman as the intermediary.

 

The third round of talks, which took place on Saturday, April 26, was also in Oman. Iran and the United States concluded their fourth round of indirect negotiations in Muscat on Sunday, May 11.