After technical talks, senior negotiators expected to reunite on April 26, according to Iranโs foreign ministry.
Iran and the United States have completed a second round of indirect nuclear negotiations, which Iranโs foreign minister has described as โconstructiveโ and moving forward with further meetings planned in the coming week.
Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held four hours of indirect talks at Omanโs embassy in the Italian capital, Rome, on Saturday, according to Araghchi.
โWe succeeded in reaching a better understanding on certain principles and goals,โ the diplomat was quoted by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency as saying. โThe negotiations were conducted in a constructive atmosphere and are progressing.โ
There has been no readout yet of the meeting from the US side.
The delegations โ led by Araghchi and Witkoff, a billionaire real estate executive whom US President Donald Trump has dispatched on numerous foreign policy missions โ stayed in separate rooms in the embassy as Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi shuttled messages between them, according to Iranian officials.
Iranโs Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the parties will hold more indirect, technical-level talks in the coming days, followed by another meeting with senior officials on April 26.
There were useful indirect talks today between Iran and the United States conducted by Oman Foreign Minister in a constructive atmosphere.
The two sides agreed to continue the indirect talks in few days at technical level to be followed by another round at their own level onโฆ
โ Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) April 19, 2025
โI hope that after next weekโs technical sessions, weโll be in a better position,โ Araghchi said, according to Tasnim. โThereโs no reason for excessive optimism or pessimism.โ
โNegotiations to pick upโ
Al Jazeeraโs James Bays, reporting near the Omani diplomatic compound in Rome, said the Iranian response was โvery positiveโ for a delegation that โhad seemed pretty negative going into the talksโ.
Next weekโs planned talks mean โthe pace of negotiations is going to be picked upโ, 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 โare looking for a kind of consistency when it comes to the current talksโ, Al Jazeeraโs Tohid Asadi reported from Tehran.
Will US accept civilian nuclear programme?
Western governments, including the US, have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons โ an allegation Tehran has denied, insisting its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful civilian use. On Wednesday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said Iran was โnot farโ from possessing a nuclear weapon.
Grossi was also in Rome on Saturday meeting Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Grossiโs nuclear watchdog would likely be central in verifying compliance by Iran should a deal be reached, as it did with the 2015 accord.
The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after Iranโs 1979 Islamic Revolution. After returning to office in January, Trump revived his โmaximum pressureโ sanctions campaign against Tehran, but in March, he sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calling for renewed negotiations โ while warning of military consequences if diplomacy fails.
โIโm not in a rushโ to use force, Trump said on Thursday. โI think Iran wants to talk.โ
On Friday, Araghchi said the US showed โa degree of seriousnessโ during the first round of talks but questioned Washingtonโs โintentions and motivationsโ.
Bays said the heart of the dispute remains whether Iran may maintain a civilian nuclear programme โ or whether, as hardliners in Washington insist, it must dismantle its nuclear programme entirely.
โAll theyโve been talking about last week in Muscat and here in Rome is a framework for the discussions and what they want to achieve,โ Bays said. โThey have not been discussing the nuclear detail, โฆ and the devil is in the detail on these things.โ
