Some progress made but still work to be done on Iran nuclear talks, US says

Uranium enrichment remains central sticking point in negotiations between Washington and Tehran

Members of the Iranian delegation leave the Omani embassy in Rome, where the fifth round of US-Iranian talks took place. Reuters

The US and Iran on Friday made further progress in a fifth round of talks centred on Tehran’s nuclear programme, Washington said.

A senior US administration official said that the two-hour fifth round of talks in Rome - characterised as both "direct and indirect" - were constructive. "We made further progress, but there is still work to be done. Both sides agreed to meet again in the near future," the official said.

The talks were hosted at the embassy of Oman, which is acting as mediator in the indirect negotiations.

Oman's Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi said the US and Iran made "some but not conclusive" progress.

"We hope to clarify the remaining issues in the coming days, to allow us to proceed towards the common goal of reaching a sustainable and honourable agreement," he said in a post on X.

Speaking to Iranian media after the talks, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sayyid Badr had proposed ways to overcome obstacles to progress and that both delegations would discuss these with their respective governments before talks negotiations could resume.

“Now a better and clearer understanding of our positions has been established with the American side, and both sides are taking the raised proposals and ideas to their capitals for further review,” state news agency Irna quoted him as saying.

The issue of Iran's uranium enrichment remains a central sticking point in the negotiations. Washington seeks a deal in which Tehran permanently halts enrichment, while Iran maintains it has an unequivocal right to continue the process.

Mr Araghchi said earlier on Friday that no nuclear deal would be possible if the US insists on ending Iran's uranium enrichment programme.

“Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science: Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal," Mr Araghchi said in a post on X before leaving for Rome.

Tehran is also refusing to ship its highly enriched uranium stockpiles abroad, another demand previously voiced by some US officials.

The US delegation for the talks included senior adviser and special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and policy planning director Michael Anton.

Iranian media said the talks started at 1.30pm and Mr Araghchi announced that they had concluded at 5pm. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, who accompanied Tehran's delegation to Rome, told Iranian media that Mr Witkoff had to leave earlier because of prior travel plans but the negotiations continued without him in a "sane and calm atmosphere".

The US State Department said on Thursday that it was confident the nuclear talks with Iran were progressing.

“The fifth round of the nuclear talks would not be happening if we didn't think that there was potential [to reach a deal],” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. “I would say that clearly we believe that we are going to succeed.”

The White House said earlier that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “a potential deal with Iran, which the President believes is moving along in the right direction".

Reports emerged this week that Israel was preparing for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if negotiations with the US fail. Mr Araghchi warned that Tehran would hold Washington responsible for any Israeli attack on its infrastructure.

The US has repeatedly said Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, while Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is peaceful and insists it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons. However, since the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal under Mr Trump, Tehran has repeatedly breached the accord in response to renewed American sanctions, stockpiling enough highly enriched uranium to potentially produce nuclear weapons.

The 2015 deal, which is set to expire soon, limited Iran to enriching uranium at 3.67 per cent for 15 years. But as of February, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had enriched uranium to 60 per cent and could rapidly reach weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

“Iran cannot have an enrichment capability, because that ultimately makes them a threshold nuclear power,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing on Wednesday.