Iran's FM Araghchi to head to Oman for nuclear talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to leave for Oman on Friday for nuclear talks with the United States, after both sides reported progress in the first two rounds.

Araghchi will be leading what foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described as a diplomatic and technical-expert delegation for indirect discussions with the US side.

President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will represent the United States in the talks scheduled on Saturday.

The meeting follows two earlier rounds of Omani-mediated talks in Muscat and Rome starting on April 12.

The third round will include expert-level technical talks over Iran's nuclear programme, with Michael Anton, who serves as the State Department's head of policy planning, lead technical talks on the US side.

Iran's Tasnim news agency meanwhile reported that deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will lead the technical talks on the Iranian side.

Baqaei said Friday that "progress in the negotiations requires the demonstration of goodwill, seriousness, and realism by the other side."

Araghchi said in an interview this week that Iran "will enter the negotiations seriously on Saturday, and if the other party also enters seriously, there is potential for progress."

Trump wrote a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in March, urging talks while warning of potential military action if diplomacy fails.

The US leader also said he was open to meeting Iran's supreme leader or the country's president, when he was asked by Time magazine in an interview on April 22 whether he would meet with either.

The interview, published on Friday, also quoted Trump stating that the US is "going to make a deal with Iran" after nuclear deal talks last week.