Iran says 'time to decide' ahead of nuclear talks with US

Patrick Sykes, Bloomberg News on May 23, 2025

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Iran said it’s “time to decide” ahead of Friday’s nuclear talks with the U.S., with the main sticking point being whether Tehran will be able to continue enriching uranium.

The first four rounds of talks, mediated by Oman, have broadly gone well, according to both U.S. and Iranian officials. But Iran insists that any deal must enable it to continue enrichment, even if to the low level needed for civilian purposes. Washington has given conflicting messages, sometimes seeming to accept that position and at others saying Iran won’t be able to enrich uranium at all.

“Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science,” Iran’s lead negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, wrote on X. “Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal.”

Araghchi landed in Rome earlier on Friday where the latest round of talks are scheduled to start at around 1 p.m. local time. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will lead negotiations on behalf of the U.S., Iran’s semi-official Tasnim agency reported.

Tehran has long said it does not want to build a nuclear weapon, and needs its atomic program only for peaceful purposes such as nuclear power. Yet Washington and Israel, as well as many European and Arab countries, are wary the program could be weaponized, especially because the Islamic Republic is enriching uranium to a far higher level than is needed for civilian use — and almost to the point needed to make an atomic weapon.

Trump has consistently said he wants the talks to succeed. He’s said he may resort to military strikes on Iran if they break down, something that would likely push up oil prices and could trigger a wider conflict in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he also wants the negotiations to succeed but that Tehran should be barred from any enrichment. He spoke to Trump on Thursday about Iran and said Israel is coordinating closely with the U.S. He also reiterated that Israel will take military action against Tehran if it feels that’s necessary.

“We hope that they will achieve an agreement that will prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, meaning that it will deny Iran the ability to enrich uranium,” Netanyahu said. “If this is achieved, we would, of course, certainly welcome it. But in any case, the State of Israel reserves to itself the right to defend itself from a regime that threatens to destroy it.”

Following a CNN report this week that suggested Israel was stepping up plans to attack Iran, the Iranian government called on the United Nations to prevent such a move. Iran said it would hold the U.S. responsible for any Israeli strike and vowed to retaliate in that situation.