Iranian foreign minister to visit Moscow ahead of second Iran-US meeting

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Russia this week ahead of a planned second round of talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at resolving Iran's decades-long nuclear stand-off with the West. 

Araqchi and U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, held talks in Oman on Saturday, during which Omani envoy Badr al-Busaidi shuttled between the two delegations sitting in different rooms at his palace in Muscat.

Both sides described the talks in Oman as positive, although a senior Iranian official told Reuters the meeting "was only aimed at setting the terms of possible future negotiations." 

The second round of the nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington will be held in Oman's Muscat on Saturday, Iran's state news agency IRNA on Monday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.

Earlier on Monday, Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italy had agreed to host the talks' second round, and Iraq's state news agency said Araqchi told his Iraqi counterpart that talks would be held "soon" in the Italian capital under Omani mediation.

Tehran has approached the talks warily, doubting the likelihood of an agreement and suspicious of Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran if there is no deal. 

Washington aims to halt Tehran's sensitive uranium enrichment work - regarded by the United States, Israel and European powers as a path to nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for civilian energy production. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Baghaei, said Araqchi will "discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks" with Russian officials.

Moscow, a party to Iran's 2015 nuclear pact, has supported Tehran's right to have a civilian nuclear programme.     

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on vital state matters, distrusts the United States, and Trump in particular.

But Khamenei has been forced to engage with Washington in search of a nuclear deal due to fears that public anger at home over economic hardship could erupt into mass protests and endanger the existence of the clerical establishment, four Iranian officials told Reuters in March.

Tehran's concerns were exacerbated by Trump's speedy revival of his "maximum pressure" campaign when he returned to the White House in January.

During his first term, Trump ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Since 2019, Iran has far surpassed the 2015 deal's limits on uranium enrichment, producing stocks at a high level of fissile purity, well above what Western powers say is justifiable for a civilian energy programme and close to that required for nuclear warheads. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency has raised the alarm regarding Iran's growing stock of 60% enriched uranium, and reported no real progress on resolving long-running issues, including the unexplained presence of uranium traces at undeclared sites. 

IAEA head Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, in an attempt to narrow gaps between Tehran and the agency over unresolved issues. 

"Continued engagement and cooperation with the agency is essential at a time when diplomatic solutions are urgently needed," Grossi said on X on Monday. 

(Reporting Dubai Newsroom, Elwely Elwelly and Menna Alaa El Din, additional reporting by Yomna EhabWriting by Parisa HafeziEditing by Andrew Cawthorne, Giles Elgood and Matthew Lewis)