The United States and Iran are set to resume high-stakes talks Saturday on Tehran's nuclear programme, a week after an initial round of discussions that both sides described as "constructive". Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will hold the Oman-mediated talks in Rome. They come one week after the two sides held what Iran called indirect talks in Muscat. Those were the first talks at such a high level between the foes since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord in 2018. 

Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes. Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Following his return to office in January, Trump revived his "maximum pressure" campaign of sanctions against Iran. In March he sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging renewed nuclear talks while warning of military action if diplomacy fails. 

"I'm not in a rush" to use the military option, Trump said on Thursday. "I think Iran wants to talk." On Friday Araghchi said Iran "observed a degree of seriousness" on the US side during the first round but questioned their intentions. "Although we have serious doubts about the intentions and motivations of the American side, in any case we will participate in tomorrow's (Saturday) negotiations," he said at a press conference in Moscow. 

In an interview published Wednesday by French newspaper Le Monde, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was "not far" from possessing a nuclear bomb. During Trump's first term, Washington withdrew from the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers which offered Iran relief from international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Tehran complied with the agreement for a year after Trump's pullout before scaling back its compliance. Araghchi was a negotiator of the 2015 deal.

His counterpart in Rome, Witkoff, is a real estate magnate Trump has also tasked with talks on Ukraine. Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 limit in the deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material. On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged European countries to decide on whether to trigger the "snapback" mechanism under the 2015 agreement, which would automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)