Iran, US report progress in nuclear talks, confirm third round next week

Iran and the United States both report progress after a second round of indirect nuclear negotiations, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi describes as “constructive”, and say they will hold further meetings in the coming week.

Technical experts will be meeting in the coming days, suggesting movement in negotiations, before the third round of talks in Oman on April 26, Araghchi said.A senior US official quoted by The Associated Press news agency said Saturday’s meeting in Rome had achieved “very good progress” and confirmed follow-up talks for next week. There has been no official US readout yet of the meeting.

Delegations led by Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate executive whom US President Donald Trump has dispatched on numerous foreign policy missions, held four hours of indirect talks at Oman’s embassy in the Italian capital, according to Iran’s top diplomat.

The delegations stayed in separate rooms in the embassy as Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi shuttled messages between them, Iranian officials said.“I hope that after next week’s technical sessions, we’ll be in a better position,” Araghchi said, according to Tasnim. “There’s no reason for excessive optimism or pessimism.”

‘Negotiations to pick up’
Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting near the Omani diplomatic compound in Rome, said the Iranian response was “very positive” for a delegation that “had seemed pretty negative going into the talks”.

Next week’s planned talks mean “the pace of negotiations is going to be picked up”, Bays said.

The latest meeting comes a week after Iran and the US came together in Muscat for their first high-level discussions since Trump in 2018 unilaterally abandoned a landmark nuclear accord signed and brokered by world powers in 2015.

The Iranians “are looking for a kind of consistency when it comes to the current talks”, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reported from Tehran.