{"id":134374,"date":"2025-04-20T05:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T05:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/very-good-progress-reported-in-high-stakes-u-s-talks-with-iran-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T05:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T05:07:14","slug":"very-good-progress-reported-in-high-stakes-u-s-talks-with-iran-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/very-good-progress-reported-in-high-stakes-u-s-talks-with-iran-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"'Very good progress' reported in high-stakes U.S. talks with Iran – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TEHRAN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A second round of high-stakes talks between the United States and Iran concluded Saturday in Rome with “very good progress,” a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration said.
Talks will continue next week, the official said in a statement.
\u201cToday, in Rome over four hours in our second round of talks, we made very good progress in our direct and indirect discussions,” the official said. “We agreed to meet again next week and are grateful to our Omani partners for facilitating these talks and to our Italian partners for hosting us today.\u201d
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi both arrived late Saturday morning for the negotiations<\/a> at the Omani Embassy in Rome. The talks took place as both sides sought to ease growing tensions over potential military action and Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.
At risk is a possible American or Israeli military strike on Iran\u2019s nuclear sites, or the Iranians following through on their threats to pursue a nuclear weapon.
Following the talks, Araghchi told Iranian state television they were “held in a constructive atmosphere” and “moving forward.”
“There is no reason for too much optimism, we cannot say that we are really optimistic,” he told the outlet. “We must be very cautious, but there is no reason for much pessimism either.”
In a statement, Oman\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Witkoff and Araghchi agreed to enter the next phase of discussions \u201cthat aim to seal a fair, enduring and binding deal.\u201d The statement said the deal will ensure Iran is free of nuclear weapons and lift sanctions against the country while continuing to allow it \u201cto develop peaceful nuclear energy.\u201d
The next round of discussions will take place in Oman\u2019s capital, Muscat, \u201cin the next few days,\u201d according to the country\u2019s foreign ministry.
The talks were mediated by Oman, which also hosted a first round of negotiations<\/a> between the two men in Muscat last Saturday. That paved the way for another meeting as both countries move toward cautious diplomacy.
\u201cI\u2019m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump said Friday. \u201cI want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.\u201d
The New York Times reported<\/a> on Wednesday that Trump had privately waved off Israeli proposals to strike Iranian nuclear sites<\/a>, preferring instead to pursue a renegotiated deal<\/a>.
Last week, Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that actions taken during the first stage of talks in Oman were \u201cgood,\u201d and must be \u201cpursued carefully.\u201d
The talks represent a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew a U.S.-backed regime,\u00a0and a U.S. embassy hostage crisis that same year.
Since then, the U.S. has imposed rounds of crippling economic sanctions on Iran. In 2018, during Trump\u2019s first term, he unilaterally withdrew from an accord Iran had struck with world leaders that had drastically limited Tehran\u2019s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The heart of the current talks remains Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment, a key indicator of how close a country may be to developing a nuclear weapon.\u00a0
Under the 2015 nuclear accord, Iran agreed to cap enrichment at 3.67%, far below the 90% needed for weapons-grade uranium. The limit was intended to ensure the program remained civilian in nature. Formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, the deal offered Iran billions in sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear ambitions.
The deal was signed by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council \u2014 the U.S., Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom \u2014 as well as Germany and the European Union.
But that agreement began to unravel in 2018 when Trump pulled the U.S. out, calling it \u201cthe worst deal ever.\u201d His first administration imposed sweeping sanctions that choked Iran\u2019s economy and isolated its financial and energy sectors.
In turn, Iran rolled back its limits and\u00a0 is believed to have enriched uranium up to 60%, closer to the weapons-grade level of 90%<\/a>.
Araghchi and Witkoff met in Oman last Saturday in talks both sides described as positive and constructive, though Iran has said since that it has been confused over the mixed messaging by the Trump administration on whether it wants Iran to completely dismantle its entire nuclear program.
Last week, Witkoff posted on X that Iran must \u201cstop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.\u201d
The previous day, on Fox News, the special envoy had stated that \u201cthe conversation with the Iranians\u201d would focus on limiting uranium enrichment at 3.67 % for civil nuclear purposes.
Witkoff\u2019s apparent contradiction underscores the tensions that have surrounded the current talks, clouded also by lingering suspicion of Trump following the collapse of the JCPOA in 2018. Tehran remains deeply wary.
Further signs of a potential shift emerged during a <\/em>Friday prayer service in Tehran attended by hardline clerics and military figures, the message from the imam was revealing \u2014 Iran should remain open to negotiations.
As some in the crowd of thousands at the University of Tehran campus chanted \u201cdeath to America,\u201d and the imam warned that talks should be pursued with caution, and that the U.S. and the Trump administration had shown they could not be trusted.
Trump has threatened to bomb Iran if no agreement is reached. Ahead of Saturday\u2019s talks, the U.S. moved a second aircraft carrier into regional waters. The president also threatened to extend tariffs on nations that continue buying Iranian oil, atop the litany of sanctions already in force.
NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.\u00a0
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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ProfileSectionsLocaltvFeaturedMore From NBCFollow NBC News news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeTEHRAN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A second round of high-stakes talks between the United States and Iran concluded Saturday in Rome with “very good progress,” a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration said.Talks will continue next week, the official said in a statement.\u201cToday, in Rome over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}