Two senior U.S. diplomats will travel to Rome to take part in the next round of negotiations with Iran, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.
“Senior Advisor and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, along with Policy Planning Director Michael Anton, will travel to Rome on Friday for a fifth round of talks with Iran. Discussions are expected to be both direct and indirect, as in previous rounds,” the source said in a statement.
Oman’s top diplomat and Iran had confirmed on Wednesday that the next round of talks will take place on Friday.
Washington and Tehran, adversaries for over four decades, began negotiations on April 12 aimed at reaching a new agreement to regulate Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting the sanctions that are crippling its economy.
These talks, mediated by the Sultanate of Oman, represent the highest level of engagement between the two sides since Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from the international nuclear deal signed three years earlier.
Western countries—led by the United States—and Israel, which experts consider the only nuclear power in the Middle East, suspect Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Tehran denies these accusations, asserting its right to pursue nuclear energy for civilian purposes.
American officials have publicly voiced their opposition to any uranium enrichment by Iran.
Tehran, which insists on its right to peaceful nuclear energy, views this demand as a red line that contradicts the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory.
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