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Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad director David Barnea were set to meet with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Paris on Friday ahead of nuclear talks with Iran in Rome, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on Friday. Ravid's post on X cited three Israeli sources.
The Trump administration and Iran held talks in Oman last weekend that both sides described as positive and constructive. Ahead of a second round of talks set to take place in Rome this weekend, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Iran's right to enrich uranium is not negotiable.
On Thursday, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program are “in a very crucial” stage.
The comments by Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Tehran included an acknowledgment his agency likely would be key in verifying compliance by Iran should a deal be reached.
Grossi’s visit also coincided with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, visiting Tehran as the highest-ranking official from the kingdom to visit Iran since the two countries reached a Chinese-mediated détente in 2023. That’s as Saudi Arabia tries to end its decade-long war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen — even as a new, intense campaign of U.S. airstrikes targets them.
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The stakes of the negotiations Saturday and the wider geopolitical tensions in the Mideast couldn’t be higher, particularly as the Israel-Hamas war rages on in the Gaza Strip. U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
“I’m not in a rush to do it because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death — and I’d like to see that, that’s my first option,” Trump said when asked about a possible attack while meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office.