ROME: Iran and the United States will begin having experts meet to discuss details of a possible deal over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, the top Iranian diplomat said Saturday after a second round of negotiations in Rome.
The comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff for several hours, suggest movement in the talks. The experts will meet in Oman before Araghchi and Witkoff meet again in Oman on April 26, Araghchi said.
There was no immediate readout from the US side after the meeting at the Omani Embassy in Rome’s Camilluccia neighborhood. However, President Donald Trump has been pushing for a rapid deal with Iran while threatening military action against it.
“The talks were held in a constructive environment and I can say that is moving forward,” Araghchi told Iranian state television. “I hope that we will be in a better position after the technical talks.”
He added: “This time, we succeeded to reach a better understanding about a sort of principles and aims.”
Iranian officials described the talks as indirect, like those last weekend in Muscat, Oman, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi shuttling between them in different rooms.
That talks are even happening represents a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the US Embassy hostage crisis. Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, setting off years of attacks and negotiations that failed to restore the accord that drastically limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Talks come as tensions rise in the Mideast
At risk is a possible American or Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, or the Iranians following through on their threats to pursue an atomic weapon. Meanwhile, tensions in the Middle East have spiked over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and after US airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels killed more than 70 people and wounded dozens more.
“I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon,” Trump said Friday. “I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Araghchi met Saturday morning with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani ahead of the talks with Witkoff.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, also met Tajani on Saturday. Grossi’s agency would likely be key in verifying compliance by Iran should a deal be reached, as it did with the 2015 accord Iran reached with world powers.
Tajani said Italy was ready “to facilitate the continuation of the talks even for sessions at the technical level.”
A diplomat deal “is built patiently, day after day, with dialogue and mutual respect,” he said in a statement.
Araghchi, Witkoff both traveled ahead of talks
Both men have been traveling in recent days. Witkoff had been in Paris for talks about Ukraine as Russia’s full-scale war there grinds on. Araghchi paid a visit to Moscow, where he met with officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia, one of the world powers involved in Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, could be a key participant in any future deal reached between Tehran and Washington. Analysts suggest Moscow could potentially take custody of Iran’s uranium enriched to 60 percent purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Oman’s capital, Muscat, hosted the first round of negotiations between Araghchi and Witkoff last weekend, which saw the two men meet face to face after indirect talks. Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has long served as an interlocutor between Iran and the West.
Ahead of the talks, however, Iran seized on comments by Witkoff first suggesting Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, then later saying that all enrichment must stop. Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on X before the talks that Iran would not accept giving up its enrichment program like Libya, or agreeing to using uranium enriched abroad for its nuclear program.
“Iran has come for a balanced agreement, not a surrender,” he wrote.
Iran seeks a deal to steady a troubled economy
Iran’s internal politics are still inflamed over the mandatory hijab, or headscarf, with women still ignoring the law on the streets of Tehran. Rumors also persist over the government potentially increasing the cost of subsidized gasoline in the country, which has sparked nationwide protests in the past
Iran’s rial currency plunged to over 1 million to a US dollar earlier this month. The currency has improved with the talks, however, something Tehran hopes will continue.
Meanwhile, two used Airbus A330-200 long sought by Iran’s flag carrier, Iran Air, arrived at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport on Thursday, flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed. The planes, formerly of China’s Hainan Airlines, had been in Muscat and re-registered to Iran.
The aircraft have Rolls-Royce engines, which include significant American parts and servicing. Such a transaction would need approval from the US Treasury given sanctions on Iran. The State Department and Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.
Under the 2015 deal, Iran could purchase new aircraft and had lined up tens of billions of dollars in deals with Airbus and Boeing Co. However, the manufacturers backed away from the deals over Trump’s threats to the nuclear accord.
Iran and US conclude second round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program in Rome
https://arab.news/mr5rw
Iran and US conclude second round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program in Rome
- President Donald Trump has been pushing for rapid deal with Iran while threatening military action against it
- Talks even happening represents a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between the two countries
Israel blasts UN aid chief over call to prevent Gaza genocide
“It was an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement”
UNITED NATIONS: Israel on Friday blasted the United Nations aid chief for asking the UN Security Council if it would act to “prevent genocide” in the Gaza Strip, where experts say famine looms after Israel blocked aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave 75 days ago.
While briefing the 15-member body earlier this week, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said: “Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?“
In a letter to Fletcher on Friday, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon accused him of delivering “a political sermon” and weaponizing the word genocide against Israel, questioning under what authority he made what Israel viewed as an accusation.
“You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior UN official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint,” he wrote. “It was an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement that shattered any notion of neutrality.”
A spokesperson for Fletcher did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Under international law, genocide is an intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This includes through killings, serious bodily or mental harm and inflicting conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and has blocked all aid to Gaza since March 2, demanding Hamas release all remaining hostages.
A global hunger monitor warned on Monday that half a million people face starvation — about a quarter of the population in the enclave.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that “a lot of people are starving in Gaza.”
Council of Europe: Israel sowing ‘the seeds for the next Hamas’ in Gaza
STRASBOURG: The Council of Europe on Friday said Gaza was suffering from a “deliberate starvation,” and warned that Israel was sowing “the seeds for the next Hamas” in the territory.
“The time for a moral reckoning over the treatment of Palestinians has come — and it is long overdue,” said Dora Bakoyannis, rapporteur for the Middle East at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The 46-member Council of Europe works to safeguard human rights and democracy.
“No cause, no matter how just or pure, can ever justify every means,” Bakoyannis said in a statement.
“The mass killing of children and unarmed civilians, the deliberate starvation, and the relentless pain and humiliation inflicted upon Palestinians in Gaza must end.”
Since March 2, Israeli forces have blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for its 2.4 million inhabitants, now threatened with famine, according to several NGOs.
Bakoyannis said that “it takes a smart and brave nation to recognize when its actions are causing more harm than good. What is unfolding in Gaza helps no-one.”
Breaking a two-month ceasefire, Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, with the declared goal of obtaining the release of all hostages still held in Gaza.
Israeli retaliations have caused at least 53,010 deaths in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
The UK government has meanwhile defended supplying fighter jet parts to Israel, telling a London court that suspending exports would compromise Britain’s security and damage relations with Israel and allies.
Government lawyer James Eadie said the UK’s trade department had acted lawfully and that suspending the export licences would have affected a wider international F-35 program, resulting in “extremely serious risks to the UK and international security.”
He added the court was not placed to rule on the legality of Israel’s actions, and that attempting to do so could have a “potentially deleterious” effect on “foreign relations with a friendly state, namely Israel.”
Tripoli back to calm after bout of deadly violence
TRIPOLI: Flights resumed on Friday at Tripoli’s airport as businesses and markets reopened after days of deadly fighting between armed groups in the Libyan capital.
“Last night, for the first time since Monday, residents of the capital were able to sleep without hearing explosions or gunfire,” an Interior Ministry official said.
After the bout of violence that pitted armed groups aligned with the Tripoli government and rival factions it seeks to dismantle, the official said that “we believe the situation is moving toward a ceasefire.”
Tripoli was calm again, with markets, gas stations and other businesses reopening at a
usual pace while many residents headed to mosques for the Friday prayer, AFP reporters said.
Flights to and from Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, which have been suspended since the fighting began early this week, resumed on Friday.
Authorities have deployed teams to clear the streets of barricades, burned-out vehicles and rubble caused by the violence, the latest outburst in Libya, which has remained deeply divided since the 2011 revolt that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
The violence in Tripoli was sparked by the killing of Abdelghani Al-Kikli, head of the Support and Stability Apparatus faction, by the Dbeibah-aligned 444 Brigade.
FASTFACT
Flights to and from Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, which have been suspended since the fighting began early this week, resumed on Friday.
A second wave of clashes pitted the 444 Brigade against another group, the Radaa force, which controls parts of eastern Tripoli and several key state institutions.
A string of executive orders had sought to dismantle Radaa and dissolve other Tripoli-based armed groups, excluding the 444 Brigade.
The UN said on Thursday there was a “truce” in Tripoli, calling on “parties to take urgent steps to sustain and build upon it through dialogue.”
It said that “at least eight civilians” were killed in the clashes, “which drew armed groups from outside the city and subjected heavily populated neighborhoods to heavy artillery fire.”
The Interior Ministry source said authorities were patrolling key parts in Tripoli on Friday, as “armed groups’ vehicles” withdrew from flashpoint areas.
“It’s a positive thing, and it indicates good intentions,” said the source.
The UN support mission in Libya, UNSMIL, had called on Thursday “for all armed formations to return to their barracks without delay.”
UNIFIL condemns attack on patrol in southern Lebanon
- Hezbollah supporters obstructing peacekeeping forces for ‘enforcing freedom of movement’
BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities on Friday were urged to ensure that UN peacekeepers could carry out their mandated tasks without threats or obstruction.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, “reminds all actors to avoid actions putting UN peacekeepers in danger,” said its spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.
They must respect the inviolability of UN personnel and premises at all times, he stressed.
Tenenti said the routine UN peacekeeping patrol was “pre-planned and coordinated with the Lebanese army.”
The UNIFIL statement came after its patrol was attacked on Friday in southern Lebanon by a large group of people wielding metal sticks and axes.
The attack took place in the villages of Jmayjmeh and Khirbet Silim.
The peacekeepers were confronted when the group attempted to block their movement using aggressive means, according to the UNIFIL statement.
A number of residents in Jmayjmeh in the Bint Jbeil district of southern Lebanon prevented the UNIFIL patrol on Friday from reaching a privately owned area in the town.
However, the incident escalated into gunfire and the use of smoke grenades.
The residents, most of whom are Hezbollah supporters, justified their actions by claiming that “the patrol was not accompanied by the Lebanese army to complete its mission.”
According to journalists in the area and video footage captured by mobile phones, the confrontation escalated to the point where soldiers from the UNIFIL patrol — composed of French, Norwegian, Finnish, and Scottish battalions — fired shots into the air and used tear gas to disperse the crowd, until a Lebanese army patrol arrived and escorted the UNIFIL unit out of the area.
According to the National News Agency, the incident resulted in injuries among both UNIFIL personnel and civilians.
UNIFIL spokesperson Tenenti, in an official statement issued by the UNIFIL command, described the incident from the perspective of the international forces.
He said: “This morning, a UNIFIL patrol conducting a routine operational activity between the villages of Jmayjmeh and Khirbat Silim was confronted by a large group of individuals in civilian clothing.
“The individuals attempted to stop the patrol using aggressive means, wielding metal sticks and axes, resulting in damage to the vehicles. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
“In response, UNIFIL peacekeepers used non-lethal force to ensure the safety of both the peacekeepers and those present.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces were informed and promptly arrived at the scene, subsequently escorting the patrol back to base.”
He stressed: “UNIFIL reminds all actors that its mandate provides freedom of movement within its area of operations in south Lebanon, and any restriction on this violates UN resolution 1701, which authorizes the UNIFIL to operate independently — with or without the Lebanese Armed Forces.
“While we always coordinate our operational activities with the Lebanese forces, our ability to conduct these activities independently does not depend on their presence.”
He added: “It is unacceptable that UNIFIL peacekeepers conducting Security Council-mandated tasks are routinely targeted.”
UNIFIL reiterated that “the freedom of movement of its peacekeepers is essential to accomplishing our mandate, which requires us to be able to act independently and impartially.”
Since the ceasefire agreement took effect in November 2024, attacks on UNIFIL by Hezbollah supporters have continued and escalated, particularly in recent weeks, under the pretext of preventing the UN force from entering private property.
Friday’s attacks coincide with the request made by the Lebanese Cabinet last Wednesday to extend UNIFIL’s mandate for one year.
As usual, the Security Council reviews the request and subsequently renews the mandate of UNIFIL each August.
UNIFIL has maintained a presence south of the Litani River since 1978, deploying around 10,000 troops.
In August 2022, most of the members of the UN Security Council approved the extension of UNIFIL’s mandate after an amendment to the freedom of movement of international peacekeepers.
The amendment stated: “UNIFIL does not require prior authorization or permission to carry out its mandated tasks and is allowed to conduct its operations independently. It emphasized, however, “coordination with the Lebanese government.”
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, influenced by Hezbollah, had protested against the amendment.
Hezbollah’s then Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned against adopting the amendment.
He said: “If they (UNIFIL) intend to act independently of the state and the Lebanese army, which is responsible for movement south of Litani, then they are pushing matters in a direction that is not in their interest.”
Less than four months after the amendment of UNIFIL’s duties, a violent incident — considered the most serious against the peacekeepers — took place in December 2022.
An Irish soldier was killed and three others were injured when their armored vehicle was shot at in the Aaqbiyeh area, north of the Litani River, after they lost their way.
The investigation into the incident in 2023 led to the issuance of an indictment by the military judiciary, accusing five Hezbollah members of premeditated murder.
One of them, Mohammed Ayyad, was arrested, but later that same year, he was released because he was said to be suffering from a terminal illness and did not appear before the judiciary thereafter.
Despite Lebanese objections, UNIFIL’s mandate was renewed in 2023, without altering the amendment.
Hezbollah supporters continued to assault UNIFIL, and incidents have escalated since the ceasefire took effect in November 2024, especially in recent weeks.
Lebanon has, however, pledged to increase the army’s presence along the southern border and has already expanded its deployment.
According to President Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army “carried out its duties in full south of the Litani River and continues to confiscate weapons and ammunition and to dismantle armed groups.”
A government source speaking to Arab News on condition of anonymity said on Friday that “the new request submitted by the Nawaf Salam government was not accompanied by a request to cancel the amendment rejected by Hezbollah. Instead, it accepted the amendment as it stands.
“Lebanon fears that the US and Israel may seek to add new privileges to UNIFIL in the next mandate extension.
"Meanwhile, the French side, as promised, is working to help Lebanon maintain the extension without any additional amendments.
“In the aftermath of war, Israel has been free to carry out attacks on Lebanon with Washington’s approval. It has repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with UNIFIL’s role, which it considers insufficient.”
Also on Friday, a statement signed by the “residents of Jmayjmeh” accused UNIFIL of “overstepping by entering the vicinity of the town’s hills for the second time without being accompanied by the Lebanese army and trespassing onto private property.”
According to the statement, the residents “rushed to inspect the property and asked UNIFIL peacekeepers to retreat and not to go further into the premises.
“However, UNIFIL started quarreling with the residents, throwing tear gas canisters at their eyes and firing bullets, resulting in several injuries.”
Jordan condemns Israeli strike on Gaza’s European Hospital
- Attack left medical facility inoperable, killed at least 28 people
AMMAN: Jordan strongly condemned on Friday Israel’s targeting of the European Hospital in Khan Younis this week, which left the medical facility inoperable and killed at least 28 people, the Jordan News Agency has reported.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates described the strike as a “blatant violation” of international humanitarian law, international legal norms, and the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War.
Sufian Al-Qudah, the spokesperson for the ministry, reiterated Jordan’s firm opposition to Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza.
He condemned what he described as the systematic targeting of civilians and vital infrastructure, and accused Israel of using blockade and starvation tactics to forcibly displace Palestinians.
Al-Qudah also warned of the grave implications Israel’s actions could have on regional security and stability.
He urged the international community to uphold its moral and legal responsibilities by putting pressure on Israel to end its military campaign in Gaza, allow the delivery of humanitarian aid through open crossings, and recognize Palestinians’ right to establish an independent state based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The strike drew international condemnation after British doctor Tom Potokar released footage from inside the hospital showing the aftermath of the attack.
The consultant plastic surgeon, who is working in Gaza, told the BBC that six bombs hit the hospital, which resulted in a scene of “absolute mayhem.”
