Iran, US Begin 4th Round of Negotiations over Tehran's Nuclear Program

A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran, US Begin 4th Round of Negotiations over Tehran's Nuclear Program

A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A woman walks next to an anti-US mural near the former US embassy in Tehran May 11, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran and the United States began a fourth round of negotiations Sunday over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, officials said, just ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump to the Middle East this week.

The round of talks, again happening in the sultanate of Oman, likely will see Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi mediating. American officials believe the talks will include both indirect and direct portions, as in previous rounds of negotiations, but like the other rounds in Muscat and Rome, details remain scarce.

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.
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. 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.
Iranian state television announced the talks had begun, The Associated Press reported. There was no immediate comment from the US side.
The talks will again see Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff lead the negotiations. They have met and spoken face-to-face in the talks, but the majority of the negotiations appear to have been indirect, with al-Busaidi shuttling messages between the two sides.
Iran has insisted that keeping its ability to enrich uranium is a red line for its theocracy. 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.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again,” Witkoff told the right-wing Breitbart news site in a piece published Friday. “That’s our red line. No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan — those are their three enrichment facilities — have to be dismantled.”
Araghchi, however, warned again that enrichment remains a red line for Iran.
“This is a right of the Iranian people that is not up for negotiation or compromise. Enrichment is one of the achievements and honors of the Iranian nation,” Araghchi said before leaving Tehran. “A heavy price has been paid for this enrichment. The blood of our nuclear scientists has been shed for it. This is absolutely non-negotiable. That has been our clear stance that we have always voiced.”
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers capped Tehran’s enrichment at 3.67% and reduced its uranium stockpile to 300 kilograms (661 pounds). That level is enough for nuclear power plants, but far below weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Since the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018 with Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord, Iran has abandoned all limits on its program and enriched uranium to up to 60% purity — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels. There have also been a series of attacks at sea and on land in recent years, stemming from the tensions even before the Israel-Hamas war began.
Iran faces pressures at home as talks continue Iran also faces challenges at home, exacerbated by sanctions. Its troubled rial currency, once over 1 million to $1, has strengthened dramatically due to the talks alone to around 830,000 to $1.
However, the two sides still appear a long way from any deal, even as time ticks away. Iranian media broadly reported a two-month deadline imposed by Trump in his initial letter sent to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Trump said he wrote the letter on March 5, which made it to Iran via an Emirati diplomat on March 12 — putting the deadline in theory as Monday when Trump takes off from Washington for his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.



Trump Downplays Possibility of Sending Ukraine Long-Range Weapons as It Struggles to Repel Russia

 In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
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Trump Downplays Possibility of Sending Ukraine Long-Range Weapons as It Struggles to Repel Russia

 In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of sending Ukraine long-range weapons as Kyiv awaits an injection of US weaponry that it hopes will help it beat back an intensifying Russian air offensive.

Trump offered a more cautious tone on what to expect after he threatened Russia a day earlier with steep tariffs if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t act within 50 days to end the three-year conflict. He also on Monday announced plans to bolster Kyiv's stockpile by selling American weapons to NATO allies who would in turn send arms to Ukraine.

Providing Ukraine with more long-range weaponry would give Kyiv the chance to strike further into Russian territory, a move that some in Ukraine and the US have said could help push Putin toward negotiations to end the fighting.

Asked if he intended to supply Ukraine with weapons that could reach deeper into Russian territory, Trump replied, "We're not looking to do that." He made the remarks to reporters before departing the White House for an energy investment event in Pittsburgh.

While Trump's threats of weapons, sanctions and tariffs mark the most substantive pressure he’s placed on Putin since returning to office nearly six months ago, some lawmakers said they remain concerned that the administration, with the 50-day deadline, is giving Putin time to grab even more Ukrainian territory.

Sens. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said waiting 50 days before imposing sanctions on Russia would give Putin more time to gain an advantage in the war.

"The 50-day delay worries me that Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war, or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement after having murdered and potentially collected more ground," said Tillis, who recently announced he won’t run for reelection.

Tillis and Shaheen lead the Senate NATO Observer Group, which facilitates work between Congress and NATO, and met Tuesday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Capitol Hill.

Trump himself scoffed at the idea that 50 days is giving Putin too much time. The president suggested he may act more quickly if he does not see signs that Putin is taking steps toward ending the conflict.

"I don’t think 50 days is very long and it could be shorter than that," he said.

Ahead of Trump's announcement that he would impose a 100% tariff on Russia’s trading partners if Putin doesn't negotiate an end to the war, bipartisan legislation proscribing even tougher sanctions on Moscow was gaining steam in the Senate.

The legislation, in part, calls for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It would have an enormous impact on the economies of Brazil, China and India, which account for the vast majority of Russia’s energy trade.

But Trump on Monday said "at a certain point it doesn’t matter" how high the tariff is set and that "100% is going to serve the same function." Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was putting the legislation on hold following Trump's announcement.

Trump during his campaign described the conflict as a waste of US taxpayer money and vowed to quickly end it on his first day back in office. He deflected when asked by a reporter on Tuesday if his tougher tone on Putin suggests he's now on Ukraine’s side in the bloody conflict.

"I’m on nobody’s side," Trump said, adding this concern was for "humanity."

US officials say they are still sorting through Ukraine’s wish list of weaponry to determine what can be most quickly replaced after Trump announced an agreement for Europe to supply Ukraine with defensive munitions from existing stocks.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss arms transfers that have not yet been approved or completed, said Ukraine’s requests for military equipment are roughly the same as they have been since the start of Russia’s invasion. Those include air defenses like Patriot missiles and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems, long-range missiles known as ATACMS and short- to medium-range ground-to-air missiles known as NASAMs, and assorted artillery, according to the officials.

Under the terms of the very rough agreement sketched out by Trump and Rutte on Monday, NATO members would ship billions of dollars of these weapons to Ukraine and then purchase replacements for them from the United States.

One official said some of the larger items, such as Patriots, could take up to five years to produce to deliver to the European donors, while smaller munitions like 155mm artillery shells can be produced on a much shorter timeline.

Trump has lately changed his once friendly tune toward Putin, whom he has long admired and whom he sided with publicly over his national security team during his first term when asked whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.

In recent weeks, Trump has chastised Putin for continuing his brutal assault on Ukrainian cities, even noting that the Russian leader "talks nice and then he bombs everybody."

Trump has continued to blame his White House predecessors for Putin's 2022 invasion on neighboring Ukraine — a conflict he says would have never happened if he were reelected in 2020.

"He’s fooled a lot of people," Trump said Monday at the White House. "He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn’t fool me."

In February, Trump expressed confidence that Putin "will keep his word" on any deal to end the war in Ukraine. But in an interview with the BBC published Tuesday, when asked whether he trusted Putin, Trump paused before answering.

"I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you," Trump said. "I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him."