US and Iran to hold nuclear talks amid clashing red lines

Iranian and US negotiators will resume talks in Rome on Friday to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, despite Iran's supreme leader warning that clinching a new deal might be insurmountable amid clashing red lines.

The stakes are high for the two sides. US President Donald Trump wants to curtail Tehran's potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race. Iran wants to be rid of devastating sanctions on its oil-based economy.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will hold a fifth round of talks, through Omani mediators, despite Washington and Tehran taking tough stances in public over Iran's uranium enrichment.

Though Iran insists the talks are indirect, US officials have said the discussions,— including the latest round on May 11 in Oman, have been “direct and indirect”.

Tehran and Washington have said they prefer diplomacy to settle the standoff, but remain deeply divided on several red lines negotiators will have to circumvent to reach a new nuclear deal and avert future military action.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Tuesday Washington is working to reach an agreement that would allow Iran to have a civil nuclear energy programme but not enrich uranium, while admitting achieving such a deal “will not be easy”.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on state matters, rejected Washington's demands that Tehran stop enriching uranium as “excessive and outrageous”, warning the talks are unlikely to yield results.

Among remaining stumbling blocks is Tehran's refusal to ship all its highly enriched uranium stockpile abroad or engage in discussions over its ballistic missile programme.

Iran said it is ready to accept some limits on its uranium enrichment but needs watertight guarantees Washington would not renege on a future nuclear accord.

Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed sweeping US sanctions that have devastated Iran's economy.

Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the 2015 pact's limits.

The cost of failure of the talks could be high. While Tehran said its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes, Iran's arch-foe Israel has said it would never allow Iran's clerical establishment to obtain nuclear weapons.

Araqchi warned on Thursday that Washington will bear legal responsibility in the event of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities after a CNN report that Israel might be preparing strikes on Iran.

While rising US-Iran tensions over Tehran's uranium enrichment jeopardise nuclear talks, three Iranian sources said on Tuesday the clerical leadership lacks a clear fallback plan if efforts to overcome the standoff collapse.

Reuters