Iran says US talks continue previous process, will address sanctions

The US negotiating team has entered the Omani Embassy in Rome, where the latest round of nuclear talks with Iran is taking place, Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported Friday.

Michael Anton, the US delegation’s technical chief, was among the officials who entered the venue, according to the Iranian newspaper Entekhab.

A senior Iranian cleric warned Friday that contradictory reports by domestic and foreign media are sowing public confusion over Iran’s nuclear negotiations and urged citizens to follow the Supreme Leader’s guidance.

“Enemy media spread so much conflicting and distorted information that people begin to doubt everything,” Mohammad Saeedi, Friday prayer Imam of Qom, said, according to state media. “In such a climate, the enemy ends up deciding for us. Everyone must follow the commands of the Supreme Leader.”

Saeedi said that while Iran’s position in the nuclear talks has remained “clear and consistent,” the United States continues to act with “unreasonable demands and contradictory stances,” undermining the chances of a successful outcome.

He added that uncritical acceptance of anti-government narratives could amount to “tacit approval” of their views, and warned that media literacy was essential in what he called a “war of narratives” over Iran’s future.

“The Americans have shifted their position many times,” he said, blaming Washington for what he described as the lack of progress in the negotiations.

Former Western officials say a past proposal could help bridge the gap between the United States and Iran over uranium enrichment, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The plan, discussed in earlier negotiations before the 2015 nuclear deal, would have Iran stop enriching uranium but gain the ability to fabricate nuclear fuel for civilian reactors using imported enriched uranium.

“That is a capability it doesn’t currently have and would allow Tehran to argue it was still carrying out a key part of its nuclear work at home,” WSJ reported, “but it would prevent it gathering the fissile material needed for a nuclear bomb.”

Iranian MP Mohammad Esmail Kowsari said ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States are destined to fail and differ fundamentally from the 2015 nuclear deal.

“We will not achieve anything in these negotiations, and it is different from the JCPOA. Talks will continue, but no result will come out of them,” Kowsari said.

Kowsari, who sits on the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said each round of negotiations is reviewed by the committee but insisted there is no expectation of progress.

Iraq’s foreign minister recently conveyed a message from US President Donald Trump to Iranian officials demanding the withdrawal of Iranian forces from positions in Iraq within two weeks and requesting access to dozens of Iranian military and nuclear sites, Iraqi diplomatic sources told UAE-affiliated Erem News.

According to the sources, the message delivered by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein during a visit to Tehran included a request for Iran to open 31 military, nuclear and research facilities for inspection by US experts in the coming weeks.

Fuad Hussein traveled to Tehran earlier this week.

The message, the sources said, warned that a potential US escalation against Iran could follow, depending on Tehran’s response and the speed of compliance.

The proposed inspections were described as unrelated to ongoing nuclear talks mediated by Oman, and were presented as a separate condition, the sources added.