Nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran resumed in Rome on Friday, with disagreements over demands becoming public and clarifying the positions of both sides.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently criticized the U.S. for seeking a ban on all uranium enrichment in Iran, suggesting an agreement may be unattainable.

The White House did not respond to questions about whether it seeks a complete ban on uranium enrichment, even for peaceful purposes like nuclear energy. However, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei stated that “This round of talks is especially sensitive.”

According to Iranian media, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left the negotiations, expressing hope that solutions could be reached in the next meeting or two to allow progress. 

Araghchi mentioned potential progress through Oman’s solutions to remove obstacles, but did not elaborate on the specific issues or the proposed solutions.

Araghchi, expected to negotiate indirectly with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff via Omani mediators, clarified Iran’s stance on U.S. demands early Friday.

“Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science,” he stated. “Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal.”

“Time to decide,” he added.

Iran maintains it does not intend to build nuclear weapons. However, actions such as advancing its missile program, which could deliver nuclear warheads, and accumulating enough near-weapons-grade enriched uranium for several nuclear weapons, have raised concerns, including those of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

While many countries, including the U.S., use uranium enrichment for nuclear energy, Iran’s nuclear energy contribution to its energy consumption is limited.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Tuesday that the U.S. aims for a deal enabling Iran to have a civil nuclear energy program without enriched uranium, acknowledging the difficulty of this approach.

“Washington’s insistence on zero enrichment, I think, is the only sober, sane, non-proliferation approach you can take [with] the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has not stopped enriching uranium at various levels since April 2006 when this entire crisis really was kicked off,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Digital.

“Iran has more to lose by pushing away from the table,” he continued. “Iran is engaging in 2025 for a very different reason than 2013 and 2015. It’s trying to blunt maximum pressure. It’s trying to prevent an Israeli military attack, and it’s trying to prevent European snap-back [sanctions].”

“This is why Iran is engaging today, and the Trump administration needs to be cognizant that, because of that, it does have the leverage in these negotiations and can demand more,” Ben Taleblu urged.

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