Iran briefs Switzerland, Pakistan on latest talks with US

Touraj Atabaki, a senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History, says analyzing China's role in the negotiations between Tehran and Washington is simpler than analyzing Russia’s approach.

“China wants the Red Sea waterway to remain a steady route for its growing trade, and is currently pleased that, thanks to the efforts of the United States, the Houthis' activities have decreased," he told Iran International.

Atabaki added, “China is very eager that Iran-US negotiations can prevent a potential Israeli or American war against the Islamic Republic, so that its relationship with the Persian Gulf countries can progress, and along with that, the famed and historic Silk Road can reach a successful outcome.”

The Haft-e Sobh paper cited market data showing a 32 percent year-on-year increase in opium prices in April, bringing the average cost to around 1.64 million rials per gram—equivalent to roughly $2.

The rial fell sharply after the start of Iran-US nuclear negotiations, trading at 820,000 to the dollar. Based on this rate, the current opium price range of 1.3 to 2 million rials per gram translates to $1.58 to $2.44.

“The price hikes in the past two years have been astronomical,” one user told Haft-e Sobh. “People can’t afford opium or its derivatives like opium extract anymore. Many have switched to industrial drugs instead.”

Over the past five years, the average price of opium has more than doubled. In 2020, it stood at around 750,000 rials per gram ($0.91), rising to 1.2 million rials ($1.46) in 2023 and now averaging 1.64 million rials ($2).

For much of the last decade, black-market opium prices had risen more slowly than Iran’s official inflation rate. But that gap has now narrowed considerably. Official inflation in the past year was 33.4 percent, nearly mirroring the 32 percent jump in opium prices.

The shift in affordability has triggered a broader change in consumption. A February 2025 field report by the Etemad newspaper found that the use of traditional narcotics like opium has declined sharply in the past seven years, with heroin and methamphetamine becoming more prevalent.

Unlike opium, meth is often easier to manufacture domestically and does not rely on cross-border supply chains.

Much of the current scarcity is linked to the Taliban’s ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, enacted in early 2022. Taliban forces destroyed large swathes of opium poppy fields, disrupting regional supply and pushing up prices.

In July 2022, Iran’s Tejarat News website reported that prices had spiked nearly sixfold before partially stabilizing.

Meanwhile, as demand remains high, reports of poppy cultivation inside Iran have surfaced despite official crackdowns. Government-linked media recently aired footage of poppy fields being destroyed in southern provinces.

In one case from March, footage released by the Baloch Activists Campaign showed armed raids by Iranian forces on the village of Esfand in Sistan and Baluchistan province, aimed at destroying local poppy farms.

In 2022, the UN office on drugs and crime (UNODC) reported that an estimated 2.8 million people suffer from a drug use problem in Iran. The country also has one of the world’s highest prevalence of opiate use among its population.

"A breakdown in the Iran-US talks is expected in a few weeks when the Americans present their full list of demands," Israel Hayom reported citing an Israeli source briefed by a US official.

"Trump is not confused. He is conducting the negotiations in his own way and knows exactly what he is doing," the report added citing the US official's assessment.

The report also cited a senior Israeli official as saying that it will become "much harder" for Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities if Tehran and Washington sign a new nuclear deal.

However, the senior official was quoted as saying, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not hesitate to act, even with Trump in the White House, despite the political difficulty that such a deal would create.

While Tehran believes the only secure agreement with the Trump administration is a treaty signed by US Congress, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been told "it would be anyone’s guess whether Trump could get such an agreement through Congress given the strength of pro-Israeli opinion there," The Guardian reported Sunday.

The issue of congressional approval of a potential deal was earlier raised by Iran during the first round of talks with the United States in Muscat.

In the April 12 talks, Iran's delegation proposed a three-stage plan to the US negotiators envisioning a cap on their uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions, sources told Iran International.

The third and final stage of the plan calls for the US congress to approve the nuclear agreement and for Washington to lift both primary and secondary sanctions, while Iran would transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpiles to a third country.

During the second round of Tehran-Washington negotiations in Rome, "the parties discussed the overall framework, agenda, and technical topics, and reached certain understandings," Iranian negotiator Kazem Gharibabadi was quoted as saying in a parliamentary briefing.

Gharibabadi made the remarks as he was briefing members of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on the talks held in Rome on Saturday, according to the committee spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei.

"Iran insists on its right to enrich uranium, and this matter is considered one of the red lines of the Islamic Republic in negotiations," Ghariabadi was quoted as saying by Rezaei.

Gharibabadi added that "Iran is completely serious and will not accept any delays in the negotiation process."

"We are not seeking to build nuclear weapons, and the country’s nuclear activities are carried out solely within peaceful objectives," he was quoted as saying.