Iran and the US on Saturday held in-depth negotiations in Muscat over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, ending the discussions with a promise for more talks and perhaps another high-level meeting next weekend.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi told state television after the talks, which ran for several hours, that the parties exchanged written points throughout the day in discussions that he described as “very serious and work-focused.”
“This time, the negotiations were much more serious than in the past, and we gradually entered into deeper and more detailed discussions,” he said. “We have moved somewhat away from broader, general discussions — though it is not the case that all disagreements have been resolved. Differences still exist both on major issues and on the details.”
Photo: AFP
A senior US administration official said that the talks were “positive and productive.”
“This latest round of direct and indirect discussions lasted over four hours,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal. We agreed to meet again soon, in Europe, and we thank our Omani partners for facilitating these talks.”
Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr al-Busaidi, who has mediated the two previous rounds of talks in Muscat and Rome, offered a positive note at the end of Saturday’s negotiations.
Iran and the US “identified a shared aspiration to reach agreement based on mutual respect and enduring commitments,” al-Busaidi wrote on X. “Core principles, objectives and technical concerns were all addressed. Talks will continue next week with a further high level meeting provisionally scheduled for May 3.”
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 the country closing in on a half-century of enmity.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal is not reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal did limit Tehran’s program. However, Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018, setting in motion years of attacks and tensions.
Trump, traveling to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, said that he hoped negotiations would lead to a new nuclear deal. However, he still held out the possibility of a military strike if they did not.
Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key, but Witkoff has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, then later saying that all enrichment must stop. The demand that all enrichment stop also has been repeated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the