Iranian and U.S. negotiators resumed talks on Friday in Rome to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Iranian media reported, despite Tehran warning that clinching a new deal might be insurmountable amid mutually exclusive demands.

The stakes are high for both sides. President Donald Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. The Islamic Republic, for its part, wants to be rid of devastating sanctions on its oil-based economy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to lead a fifth round of talks, through Omani mediators.

Both Washington and Tehran have taken a tough stance in public over Iran’s intensifying uranium enrichment programme, which could potentially give it scope to build a nuclear warhead, even though Tehran says it has no such ambitions and the purposes are purely civilian.

Iran insists the talks are indirect, but U.S. officials have said the discussions – including the latest round on May 11 in Oman – have been both “direct and indirect”.

Ahead of the talks, Araqchi wrote on X: “…Zero nuclear weapons = we Do have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal. Time to decide.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Trump believes negotiations with Iran are “moving in the right direction”.

Tehran and Washington have both said they prefer diplomacy to settle the impasse.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Washington is working to reach an accord that would allow Iran to have a civil nuclear energy programme but not enrich uranium, while admitting that achieving such a deal “will not be easy”.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on Iran’s state matters, rejected Washington’s demands that Tehran stop refining uranium as “excessive and outrageous”, warning that the talks are unlikely to yield results.

Among remaining stumbling blocks is Tehran’s refusal to ship abroad its entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium – possible raw material for nuclear bombs – or engage in discussions over its ballistic missile programme.

Iran says it is ready to accept some limits on enrichment, but needs watertight guarantees that Washington would not renege on a future nuclear accord.

(Reuters)

Three children were among at least five people killed when a suicide bomber struck an army school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, the military said on Wednesday, in an attack that Pakistan blamed on Indian proxies, Reuters reported.

About 40 students were on the bus, which was headed to an army-run school, and several sustained injuries, said Yasir Iqbal, administrator of Khuzdar district, where the incident took place.

Pakistan’s military and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif swiftly condemned the violence and accused “Indian terror proxies” of involvement, although they did not share any evidence linking the attack to New Delhi.

“Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian-sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice,” the military’s media wing said.

India rejected Pakistan’s accusations.

“In order to divert attention from its reputation as the global epicentre of terrorism and to hide its own gross failings, it has become second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

India also declared an official of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi persona non grata, the second such expulsion in a week, for “indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status.”

The Pakistani charge d’affaires was summoned and given a warning to ensure that Pakistani officials do not misuse their privileges and status, the ministry added.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry made a similar move early on Thursday as an official of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was declared persona non grata, it said in a statement posted on social media.

The Indian charge d’affaires was summoned to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry to stress that Indian officials in Pakistan should not “misuse their privileges and status in any manner,” the statement added.

Tensions remain high after India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Diplomats have warned the truce is fragile, following the most dramatic escalation of hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades, read the report.

Both have traded accusations of supporting militancy on each other’s soil – a charge that each denies. The latest escalation, in which the two countries traded missiles, was sparked when India accused Pakistan of supporting a militant assault on tourists in the Indian portion of the contested region of Kashmir. Islamabad denies any involvement.

In Wednesday’s attack in Balochistan, at least three children and two adults were killed, the army said. Local television showed images of three dead girls from middle and high school.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, reminiscent of an attack on a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 130 children.

That attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an ultra-radical Islamist militant group.

Attacks by separatist groups in Balochistan have risen in recent years. In March, the Baloch Liberation Army blew up a railway track and took passengers from a train hostage, killing 31 civilians, soldiers and staff.

 Iran’s parliament approved a 20-year strategic partnership on Wednesday between Moscow and Tehran, state media reported. The agreement represents a deepening of bilateral ties including closer defence cooperation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian signed the strategic partnership document on January 17.

The Russian legislative branch approved the pact in April. While the agreement does not include a mutual defence clause, it says both countries will work together against common military threats, develop their military-technical cooperation, and take part in joint exercises.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Iran and Russia have deepened military ties, with Western countries accusing Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks on Ukraine. Tehran denies providing weapons for Russian use in Ukraine.

The strategic pact also includes several clauses aimed at boosting economic partnership, notably by strengthening direct interbank cooperation and promoting their national financial products.

A free trade deal between Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union went into effect last week, cutting down tariffs to boost trade between the two economies, which are both under heavy Western sanctions.

(Reuters)