Dispute over nuclear program: Oman: Nuclear negotiations postponed between Iran and the USA

The next round of negotiations on Iran’s controversial nuclear program between Washington and Tehran is to be postponed. The fourth appointment planned for Saturday in Rome between the US specialist Steve Witkoff and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghtschi would be postponed for “logistical reasons”, wrote Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi on the platform X. New dates are to be announced if the pages have been informed about how al-Busaidi wrote further.

On Wednesday, the US Ministry of Finance had imposed new sanctions against several companies in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Iran, which, according to Washington, are involved in the business of Iranian oil. Iran’s foreign office spokesman Ismail Baghai condemned the new punitive measures according to the state news agency IRNA Scharf and threatened consequences. It remained unclear whether the new sanctions are the real reason of shift.

The Iranian journalist Abas Aslani wrote on the platform X that “internal disagreements within the US government” and “changes to the framework conditions defined in previous rounds” were one of the reasons for the shift. According to the government -related web portal “Iran Nuances”, skepticism is growing in Tehran how seriously the United States meant the ongoing nuclear negotiations.

For years there has been a dispute over the Iranian nuclear program

In 2015, Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear program after long negotiations with contractual partners – including China, Russia, the USA, the USA, Germany and Great Britain. However, Trump unilaterally got out of the pact in 2018 and imposed new, hard sanctions. Then Tehran no longer adhered to the requirements of the agreement. Trump is now striving for a new deal with the Islamic Republic and at the same time threatened with bombing, should there be no agreement.

With the postponement, a discussion of Iranian government members with representatives from Germany, France and Great Britain, which, according to Tehran, is said to have been scheduled for Friday.

Even if the European governments are not directly at the negotiating table, they continue to have an important means of pressure. The Viennese agreement – even if it is actually no longer used – is formal in October 2025. Until then, the Europeans, as co-signers, have the opportunity to return earlier and strict UN sanctions against Iran without much resistance through the so-called Snapback mechanism.