Iranian and U.S. representatives will resume talks in Rome on 23 May to resolve a long-running dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The talks are resuming after nearly two weeks of escalating rhetoric.
Despite the scheduled talks, expectations remain low about their likely outcome. Both sides have made it clear that their fundamental positions have not changed. The main divergence between the sides remains the issue of uranium enrichment.
The administration of US President Donald Trump insists that Iran must halt all enrichment activities, a demand that special envoy Steve Whitkoff recently described as critical “because enrichment enables weapons development.”
On 21 May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated this view, telling a Senate committee hearing that “any level of domestic enrichment is unacceptable and poses a direct threat.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the US demands as “outrageous” and “nonsense”, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi emphasised that Iran would enrich uranium “with or without an agreement”.
“We have never given up on diplomacy. We are still assessing whether on this day and in this place we can have useful and productive negotiations,” Araqchi said on 21 May, hours before Oman announced that the next round of talks would be held in Rome on 23 May.
US President Donald Trump says the US goal is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Washington insists on curtailing Iran’s nuclear programme, although official Tehran says it is not aimed at building nuclear weapons. Trump is offering the Iranian leadership an agreement, the details of the proposal were not disclosed, but Tehran says any such agreement must include the lifting of sanctions on Iran. The US president has not ruled out forceful measures against Iran if an agreement is not reached.