ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi discussed how to keep US-Iranian nuclear negotiations on track Wednesday, Iran’s state-run news agency reported.
The two discussed progress made during a second round of US-Iranian indirect negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday, IRNA reported. The talks were held amid ongoing tensions between the two countries, with Iran closing an international waterway during negotiations amid a massive US naval buildup in the Gulf.
In a call, Araghchi and Grossi, who attended the Oman-mediated talks, reviewed the negotiations, IRNA reported. Gross offered Araghchi IAEA support in drafting what Araghchi described as a “coherent framework” for the US, which was reportedly expected within two weeks.
Araghchi and Grossi also met in Geneva before the talks following months of tensions between Tehran and the UN agency. Tehran has accused the IAEA of bias toward the West and Israel, restricted inspectors’ access to sites, and refused to report on the status of highly enriched uranium stockpiles.
Iran meets with IAEA, Russian, Chinese diplomats
Iran’s IAEA representative Reza Najafi also met on Wednesday with Grossi and China and Russia’s UN ambassadors in Vienna, where the nuclear program was discussed, Iran’s UN mission in Vienna reported on X.
Araghchi said the two sides made progress during Tuesday’s negotiations and “were able to reach a general understanding on a set of guiding principles that will serve as the basis for moving forward and entering into the drafting of a potential agreement.”
The Geneva meeting was the second round of Oman-mediated indirect talks that began in early February. Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are leading the US delegation with Araghchi representing Iran.
Washington is demanding Iran curb its uranium enrichment, while Iran insists its program is conducted for peaceful purposes.
Tensions underpin talks
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the negotiations addressed the two core issues for Iran and the US: lifting sanctions and the nuclear program.
“We are ready to continue these talks as long as it takes,” Baghaei said. “The issues aren’t complicated. There is no trust between the two parties. We have to continue under these conditions.”
While the US delegation has remained mum, Vice-President JD Vance told Fox News hours after the talks ended that while negotiators agreed to meet again, the Iranians had not acknowledged certain “red lines.” He said Trump “reserves the ability to say when he thinks that diplomacy has reached its natural end.”
Trump said he would be “indirectly” involved in the talks and has repeatedly threatened military action if Iran doesn’t resolve its nuclear program.
In addition to demanding that Iran halt uranium enrichment, Washington has sought to include Iran’s missile program in negotiations - demands Tehran has firmly rejected. Iran is focused on lifting sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy, driving massive protests that have killed at least 7,000 people amid severe crackdowns by Iran’s security agencies, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists New Agency (HRANA.)