The next round of interviews between the United States and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear program will be held in Italy. This was announced by the deputy premier and foreign minister Antonio Tajani, during a press point in Osaka, Japan, where he is on a mission. “We received the request from the interested parties and from the Oman who plays the role of mediator and we gave a positive response,” he said.
“We are ready to welcome meetings that can be carriers of positive results as always, in this case on the nuclear question”, he added, claiming that “Rome is confirmed as the capital of peace and mediation” and that “it is not the first time that there are meetings of this type in our country”.
Trump pushes for a quick decision
The President of the United States Donald Trump, who threatened military actions if an agreement will not be reached to stop the Iranian nuclear program, told journalists on board the Air Force One yesterday (Sunday 13 April) that he had met his directors on Iran and to expect a short decision. The day before he had declared that the situation “was going quite well, I think”, without however providing further details.
In motion diplomacy: Iran in contact with Moscow
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will be in Moscow this week to discuss the situation before the new meeting with Washington scheduled for Saturday in Rome. Iran and the United States, who have not entertained diplomatic relations since 1980, had already had a comparison last Saturday with the mediation of the Oman’s sultanate. On the table, once again, the question of the Iranian nuclear program.
The node of uranium enrichment
Western countries, guided by the United States, have suspected for years that Iran is trying to have nuclear weapons. Tehran rejects these accusations, supporting his right to the development of nuclear energy for civil purposes. After the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 nuclear agreement, decided by Trump in 2018, Iran gradually renounced its commitments, increasing the number and efficiency of the centrifuges in Natanz and Fordo sites.
An agreement in crisis since 2018
The nuclear agreement of 2015, also signed by France, the United Kingdom, China, Germany and Russia, provided for the revocation of some international sanctions in exchange for the supervision of the Iranian nuclear program by the International Agency for atomic energy (AIEA). The Agency had certified the respect of the commitments by Iran, but after the US withdrawal, the Islamic Republic accelerated its program. According to Aiea, Iran is currently the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich Uranium at 60 percent, a level very close to the 90 percent threshold needed to build an atomic weapon. In the meantime, it continues to accumulate significant stocks of fissile material.
