Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's Nuclear Program Return to Oman

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
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Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's Nuclear Program Return to Oman

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A

Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program will return Saturday to the sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on Iran closing in on half a century of enmity. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Neither Iran nor the US have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to Muscat, the Omani capital nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend's talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations.

But Rome remains in mourning after the death of Pope Francis, whose funeral will be Saturday. And Iranian state television, in covering last weekend's talks, complained at length on air about the “paparazzi” gathered across the street from the Omani Embassy in Rome's Camilluccia neighborhood.

“As you can see, unlike the first round of talks where the presence of journalists was limited and the Omanis had special management in place to prevent a large and chaotic media presence from disrupting the negotiations, this time in Rome, Italy, that kind of control hasn’t been applied,” said Hosnieh Sadat Shobeiri, an Iranian state TV journalist dressed in gray, all-encompassing chador.

“Because of the crowd we’re seeing here, with media outlets from various countries — including some that are anti-Iran — it’s possible that we’ll hear more conflicting reports and news aimed at disrupting the talks coming out of Rome compared to Oman.”

'Peaceful use of nuclear energy'

The Muscat talks come as Iran appears to have lined up Chinese and Russian support. Araghchi traveled to Moscow last week and this week visited Beijing.

On Thursday, Chinese, Iran and Russian representatives met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that likely will verify compliance with any accord like it did with Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That deal included China and Russia, as well as France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, Iran has greatly restricted the IAEA's inspections — leading to fears internationally that centrifuges and other nuclear material could be diverted.

The IAEA offered no readout from the talks, but China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday described the three nations as saying the agency has “the necessary potential and expertise to contribute constructively to this process.”

“China, Russia and Iran emphasized that political and diplomatic engagement based on mutual respect remains the only viable and practical path for resolving the Iran nuclear issue,” the report said. It added that China respects Iran's “right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The Trump administration has kept France, Germany and the UK out of its direct negotiations with Iran, something similarly reflected in Witkoff's negotiations with Russia over ending its war on Ukraine. Witkoff traveled Friday to Moscow ahead of Saturday's meeting in Muscat.

Araghchi meanwhile has said he's open to visiting Berlin, London and Paris to discuss the negotiations.

“The ball is now in the E3’s court,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X on Thursday, using an acronym for the countries. “They have an opportunity to do away with the grip of Special Interest groups and forge a different path. How we act at this critical junction is likely to define the foreseeable future.”

US stance on enrichment hardens Two Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, are expected to lead Tehran’s expert team, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. Takht-e Ravanchi took part in the 2015 nuclear talks, while Gharibabadi as well as been involved in atomic negotiations.

The US technical team, which is expected to arrive in Oman on Friday, will be led by Michael Anton, the director of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's policy planning staff. Anton does not have the nuclear policy experience of those who led America's efforts in the 2015 talks.

However, he was an early supporter of Trump, describing the 2016 election as a “charge the cockpit or you die” vote. “A Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto,” Anton wrote. “With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.” He also criticized “Iran sycophancy” in the same essay.

Rubio, speaking on a podcast released this week, also kept up a Trump line that Iran needed to stop its enrichment of uranium entirely.

“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said.

Iran ‘on high alert’

But Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key. Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.

Meanwhile, one more wildcard is Israel, whose devastating war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Trump initially announced the Iran talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. But Israel, which for years has targeted Iran's nuclear program with attacks on its facilities and scientists, has kept open the possibility of airstrikes to destroy Tehran's enrichment sites.

On Monday, Israel's military conducted drills preparing for possible new Iranian missile attacks, the country's public broadcaster KAN reported.

“Our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response,” Araghchi wrote on Wednesday in a post on X.

 



Severe Storms, Tornadoes Kill More than 25 in South-central US

In this image obtained from the Laurel County Fiscal Court in Kentucky, residents search through tornado damage near the city of London on May 17, 2025. Handout / Laurel County Fiscal Court/AFP
In this image obtained from the Laurel County Fiscal Court in Kentucky, residents search through tornado damage near the city of London on May 17, 2025. Handout / Laurel County Fiscal Court/AFP
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Severe Storms, Tornadoes Kill More than 25 in South-central US

In this image obtained from the Laurel County Fiscal Court in Kentucky, residents search through tornado damage near the city of London on May 17, 2025. Handout / Laurel County Fiscal Court/AFP
In this image obtained from the Laurel County Fiscal Court in Kentucky, residents search through tornado damage near the city of London on May 17, 2025. Handout / Laurel County Fiscal Court/AFP

Severe storms that swept through the US states of Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia left more than 25 people dead, laying waste to local communities and cutting off electricity to nearly 200,000, authorities said Saturday.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on X at least 18 people had died in the storms Friday night, while local officials in Missouri said another seven were dead there.

Two people were also killed by falling trees in Virginia, local media reported.

Jamie Burns, 38, who lives with her husband and son in a trailer home in the town of London, Kentucky, had to seek shelter in the basement of her sister's brick house while the storm destroyed 100 to 200 houses in the area, reported AFP.

"Things that have been here longer than I have, things that have been here for 30-plus years are just flat," Burns told AFP in a phone interview, her voice quavering.

"It's wild, because you'll look at one area and it's just smashed... totally flattened, like, not there anymore."
Drone footage published by local media showed scenes of devastation in London, with houses leveled and reduced to splinters and tree trunks standing bare, completely shorn of branches.

Beshear added that more than 100,000 people have been left without power in the state, and five counties have declared a state of emergency.

Eastern Kentucky, an area historically known for its coal mines, is one of the poorest regions in the country.

"A lot of us live in manufactured homes that aren't safe for tornado weather," said Burns.

- 'One of the worst storms' -

In Missouri, five people were killed in the major city of St. Louis, in what authorities said was one of the worst storms in its history, and two in Scott County, the State Highway Patrol said in a statement to AFP.

More than 80,000 people were left without power and three shelters were opened in the area, the statement added. More severe weather was forecast for Sunday night and Monday.

Asked Saturday by a reporter whether it was the worst storm ever to hit St. Louis, Mayor Cara Spencer replied: "I would describe this as one of the worst storms -- absolutely. The devastation is truly heartbreaking."

She said 38 people in the city were injured and some 5,000 buildings damaged.
In one St. Louis neighborhood, a church was heavily damaged, according to CBS footage, and rescue workers continued to treat victims near the building Saturday morning.

"It's horrific for a tornado to come through here and cause this much damage to the residents and also to the church," Derrick Perkins, a pastor at the Centennial Christian Church, told CBS. "Our hearts are broken."

Bruce Madison, who also works at the church, said the community was coming together in the face of the tragedy.

"Right now, we're just praying for... everybody that they're trying to find right now."

While there were warnings ahead of the severe weather -- Beshear had protectively declared a state of emergency Friday -- the death toll may raise questions about whether sharp cuts by the Trump administration have left National Weather Service forecasting teams dangerously understaffed.

An estimated 500 of the 4,200 NWS employees have been fired or taken early retirement this year, according to the Washington Post.

The United States saw the second-highest number of tornadoes on record last year with nearly 1,800, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), trailing only 2004.