By DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran and the United States prepared Friday for a fifth round of negotiations in Rome over Tehran’s accelerating nuclear program, with uranium enrichment emerging as the key issue.
U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump downward, maintain that Iran must cease all uranium enrichment as a condition for lifting economic sanctions that have battered the Islamic Republic. In contrast, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi asserted early Friday on the social platform X that halting enrichment entirely would be a deal-breaker.
“No enrichment means we do NOT have a deal,” Araghchi wrote. “Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science. Time to decide.”
The U.S. will be again represented in the talks by Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director. While authorities haven’t offered a location for the talks, another round in Italy’s capital took place at the Omani Embassy there. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi is mediating the negotiations as the sultanate on the Arabian Peninsula has been a trusted interlocutor by both Tehran and Washington in the talks.
This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 25, 2025, and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, on March 19, 2025. Credit: AP
Enrichment remains key in negotiations
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic, closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Uranium enrichment remains the key point of contention. Witkoff at one point suggested Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later began saying all Iranian enrichment must stop. That position on the American side has hardened over time.
Asked about the negotiations, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said “we believe that we are going to succeed” in the talks and on Washington’s push for no enrichment. “The Iranians are at that table, so they also understand what our position is, and they continue to go,” Bruce said Thursday.
One idea floated so far that might allow Iran to stop enrichment in the Islamic Republic but maintain a supply of uranium could be a consortium in the Mideast backed by regional countries and the U.S. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has maintained enrichment must continue within the country’s borders and a similar fuel-swap proposal failed to gain traction in negotiations in 2010.
A display of new-generation Iranian centrifuges during Iran’s National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran, April 10, 2021. (Iranian Presidency Office/WANA via Reuters)
Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on their own if it feels threatened, further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Araghchi warned Thursday that Iran would take “special measures” to defend its nuclear facilities if Israel continues to threaten them, while also warning the U.S. it would view it as being complicit in any Israeli attack. Authorities allowed a group of Iranian students to form a human chain Thursday at its underground enrichment site at Fordo, an area with incredibly tight security built into a mountain to defend against possible airstrikes.
Donald Trump has said negotiations to prevent Iran’s development of nuclear weapons were down to their “final moments” after he wrote to the country’s leader on Friday.
Talks come as US pressure on Iran increases
Yet despite the tough talk from Iran, the Islamic Republic needs a deal. Its internal politics are inflamed over the mandatory hijab, or headscarf, with women still ignoring the law on the streets of Tehran. Rumors also persist over the government potentially increasing the cost of subsidized gasoline in the country, which has sparked nationwide protests in the past.
The Iranian rial fell to over 1 million per U.S. dollar in April, although it has slightly recovered amid renewed negotiations. Tehran hopes the talks will stabilize the economy and avoid further unrest.
Meanwhile, its self-described “Axis of Resistance” sits in tatters after Iran’s regional allies in the region have faced repeated attacks by Israel during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government during a rebel advance in December also stripped Iran of a key ally.
Adding to the pressure, the Trump administration has imposed new sanctions, including measures announced this week targeting the sale of sodium perchlorate to Iran. The chemical, reportedly shipped from China to Iran’s Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas, was linked to a massive explosion in April that killed dozens and injured over 1,000 during a previous round of talks.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday pushed back against U.S. criticism of the country’s nuclear program, saying that Tehran would not seek permission from anyone to enrich uranium and calling American statements “nonsense.”
(Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.)
