U.S. officials made “very good” progress during the second round of nuclear talks with Iran in Rome and plan to meet with their Tehran’s counterparts next week.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held both direct and indirect discussions during the meeting that lasted more than four hours, according to a U.S. official.
“We agreed to meet again next week and are grateful to our Omani partners for facilitating these talks and to our Italian partners for hosting us today,” a senior U.S. administration official said.
Araghchi said after the meeting that progress on “principles and objectives” of a potential deal was made and that technical-level discussions will start in the “coming day.”
“We made clear how many in Iran believe that the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] is no longer good enough for us. To them, what is left from that deal are ‘lessons learned’. Personally, I tend to agree. The initiation of expert level track will begin in coming days with a view to hammer out details,” Araghchi said in a Saturday statement on the social media platform X.
“After that, we will be in a better position to judge,” Iran’s foreign minister added. “For now, optimism may be warranted but only with a great deal of caution.”
