A fourth cycle of discussion on the United States on the Tehran nuclear program has been postponed.
Iran said that the two countries, as well as Oman facilitators, jointly decided to postpone the meeting on Saturday to Rome for “logistical and technical reasons”. The United States said the moment of talks had not been confirmed in the first place.
He came then that US President Donald Trump threatened measures against those who buy Iranian oil or petrochemicals on Thursday, after Washington introduced new sanctions this week on companies which, they said, had links with Tehran.
Trump withdrew the United States from a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and five other world powers in 2018, and has long said that it would materialize a “better” agreement.
He previously warned of military action if these new talks, which started in April, do not succeed. The two parties described the first cycle of talks in the capital of Oman Muscat as “constructive”.
The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said that “Tehran’s determination to ensure a negotiated solution” had not changed.
He wrote on X: “In fact, we are more determined than ever to conclude a fair and balanced agreement: guaranteeing the end of the sanctions and creating the confidence that Iran’s nuclear program will forever remain peaceful while ensuring that Iranian rights are fully respected.”
However, a spokesperson for the US State Department said that the meeting on Saturday had not been confirmed and that it expected the next round to take place “in the near future”.
Oman’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said that a new date would be fixed when it was agreed by all parties.
It is unlikely that the announcement means that the talks have broken down, the two parties wishing to avoid war.
But Tehran’s reports have described an increasing doubt about the usefulness of talks, pointing to the new sanctions and what Tehran calls contradictory positions from the American delegation.
Part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy of “maximum pressure” towards Tehran, the sanctions announced target entities targeted by the United States on Wednesday to be involved in the illegal trade in Iranian and petrochemical oil.
The US State Department said in a statement: “The Iranian regime continues to feed conflicts in the Middle East, to advance its nuclear program and to support its terrorist and proxy partners.
“Today, the United States is taking action to stem the income flow that the plan uses to finance these destabilizing activities.”
Publishing on his social account Truth Thursday, Trump wrote: “Any country or person who buys an amount of oil or Iran petrochemicals will be submitted, immediately, to secondary sanctions.
“They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, a form or a form.”
Iran described the latest sanctions as “additional evidence of the contradictory behavior of American decision -makers and lack of good faith”.
Media reports in Iran also indicate a position by the US Secretary for Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday, who warned that Iran “would pay the consequence” for his support for the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The message was republished by Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff who led the American delegation.
He said: “Message to Iran: we see your deadly support for the Houthis. We know exactly what you do. You pay the consequence at the time and at the place of our choice.”
The Houthis declared themselves to be part of a “resistance axis” of groups affiliated with Iran against Israel, the United States and the wider West – as well as armed groups such as Hamas and the Hezbollah movement of Lebanon.
The United States has launched several deadly strikes on Houthi targets in recent months in response to the group’s attacks against the Red Sea expedition, which began in November 2023 in response to the Israel military campaign in Gaza.
Trump said that he was looking for a solution that would close Iran’s tracks to build a nuclear bomb. But there are those of his administration who put pressure for the complete dismantling of the Iranian nuclear enrichment program.
They also push to Iran to stop the support of its proxies in the region, including the Houthis.
Iran says that its program is peaceful and that it has the right to enrich. He hopes that a limit agreement, but not dismantling, its nuclear program in exchange for relief of sanctions.
After Russia, Iran was under the most extensive sanctions in history – the sanctions that the United States has imposed on the country.
President Massoud Pezeshkian focused Iran’s economic policies on the promise of the lifting of these sanctions.
