TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s top diplomat insisted Wednesday that Tehran will never stop enriching uranium, reinforcing the Islamic Republic’s hard line ahead of a new round of indirect talks with the United States over its fast-advancing nuclear program.
Iran's foreign ministry later confirmed it has agreed to take part in the next round of talks Friday in Rome.
The comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi come after multiple rounds of talks between the two nations, including at an expert level over the details of a possible deal. American officials including President Donald Trump, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintain that Iran must give up enrichment — something it didn’t do in its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
“I have said it before, and I repeat it again: uranium enrichment in Iran will continue — with or without an agreement,” Araghchi said, according to state television.
Araghchi added that Iran was “currently reviewing whether to participate in the next round and when to take part” in talks with the U.S. Negotiators previously met in Muscat, Oman, and Rome but Trump’s trip to the Mideast last week delayed any new meeting.
Later Wednesday, Oman’s foreign minister announced that the fifth round of indirect talks will be Friday in Rome. The minister made the comment on social media. Oman has long served as a mediator, facilitating quiet diplomacy amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and regional security.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, in a post on X later confirmed that Tehran has agreed to take part in the new round of talks. Washington has not confirmed the meeting or announced whether it will attend.
“We have never abandoned diplomacy. We will always be present at the negotiating table, and the main reason for our presence is to defend the rights of the Iranian people,” Araghchi said. “We stand against excessive demands and rhetoric at the table.”
Araghchi’s remarks came a day after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he didn’t expect the negotiations to produce a deal.
“I don’t think nuclear talks with the U.S. will bring results. I don’t know,” Khamenei said.
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic, closing in on half a century of enmity.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s 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. Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own if it feels threatened, further worsening tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers capped Tehran’s enrichment level at 3.67% and reduced its uranium stockpile to 300 kilograms (661 pounds). That level is enough for nuclear power plants, but far below weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Since the nuclear deal collapsed in 2018 with Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the accord, Iran has abandoned all limits on its program and enriched uranium to up to 60% purity — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels. There have also been a series of attacks at sea and on land in recent years, stemming from the tensions even before the Israel-Hamas war began.
Associated Press writers Gabe Levin and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
FILE - This combo shows Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, pictured in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 25, 2025 and Steve Witkoff, right, White House special envoy, pictured in Washington, on March 19, 2025. (AP Photos Stringer, Mark Schiefelbein)
The new Israeli military operation against Iran is giving President Donald Trump a fresh test of his campaign promise to disentangle the U.S. from foreign conflicts. It lands as he's dealing with domestic turmoil: Opponents of his administration are set to rally in hundreds of cities on Saturday during the military parade in Washington to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary, which coincides with Trump’s birthday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, doubling as Trump’s national security adviser, asserted that the U.S. was “not involved” and that protecting U.S. forces in the region is the Republican administration’s central concern. Trump, however, said Friday that he knows of Israel’s plans and warned Iran of “a lot more to come.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order directing Trump to return control of National Guard troops to California after he deployed them against people protesting immigration raids in Los Angeles. The appeals court set a hearing for Tuesday, leaving soldiers on the streets ahead of nationwide protests planned for Saturday.
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation has become a symbol of Trump’s harsh immigration policies, will stand before a Tennessee judge on Friday for a court hearing to determine whether he can be released from jail pending trial on human smuggling charges. His lawyers have called the charges filed last week “preposterous.”
Before the hearing began in Nashville, Abrego Garcia’s wife told a crowd outside a church that Thursday marked exactly three months since the Trump administration “abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family.”
Her voice choked with emotion, Jennifer Vasquez Sura said she saw her husband for the first time on Thursday.
She said, “Kilmar wants you to have faith,” and that he wanted his supporters and family to know that “I will be victorious because God is with us.”
“If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform Friday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order directing Trump to return control of National Guard troops to California, and set an appellate hearing for Tuesday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom had asked for an emergency intervention to stop troops from supporting immigration raids. “Today was really about a test of democracy, and today we passed the test,” Newsom said before the appeals court decision.
“The district court has no authority to usurp the President’s authority as Commander in Chief,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
▶ Read more about California’s legal challenge of Trump’s military deployment in Los Angeles
The U.S. president said Friday morning that “we know what’s going on” when asked what sort of advance warning he got from Israel about its attack on Iran.
“Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Trump again cited the Israel attack as a warning to Iran to make a nuclear deal.
The United States is shifting ships and other military resources in the Middle East in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran and a possible retaliatory attack by Tehran, two U.S. officials said Friday.
The Navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner to begin sailing toward the Eastern Mediterranean and also has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward, so it can be available if requested by the White House.
The president is meeting with his National Security Council principals, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Friday morning to discuss the situation, one of the officials said.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.
— Tara Copp.
The Republican president’s March 25 executive order sought to overhaul elections nationwide by compelling officials to require documentary proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote for federal elections, accepting only mailed ballots received by Election Day and conditioning federal election grant funding on states adhering to the new ballot deadline.
The White House has defended the order as “standing up for free, fair and honest elections” and called proof of citizenship a “commonsense” requirement.
The judge sided with a group of Democratic state attorneys general who challenged the effort as unconstitutional.
The attorneys general said the directive “usurps the States’ constitutional power and seeks to amend election law by fiat.”
Israel told the Trump administration that large-scale attacks were coming and expected Iranian retaliation would be severe and that’s why the United States ordered the evacuations of some nonessential embassy staffers and authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents in the region, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to describe private diplomatic discussions.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff still plans to go to Oman this weekend for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, but it’s not clear if the Iranians would participate, officials said.
In an interview with ABC News on Friday morning, Trump said the Israeli attack on Iran was “excellent” and again previewed more attacks to come.
“We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it,” Trump told ABC’s Jon Karl. “They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. A lot more.”
Just hours before Israel launched strikes on Iran early Friday, President Donald Trump was still holding onto tattered threads of hope that a long-simmering dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program could be resolved without military action.
But with the Israeli military operation called “Rising Lion” now underway — something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says will go on for “as many days as it takes” — Trump will be tested anew on his ability to make good on a campaign promise to disentangle the U.S. from foreign conflicts.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump said in a Friday morning social media post. “I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.”
▶ Read more about the new test to Trump’s agenda
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order that directed President Donald Trump to return control of National Guard troops to California after he deployed them there following protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids.
The court said it would hold a hearing on the matter on Tuesday. The ruling came only hours after a federal judge’s order was to take effect at noon Friday.
▶ Read more about the court ruling
Marines are expected to begin moving into the city soon and will formally take over security from National Guard troops at some of the protest locations Friday morning.
The arriving Marines will take some time to transition with the Guard soldiers leaving the posts, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday night to discuss troop movements.
About 700 Marines have been undergoing civil disturbance training at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in Orange County, California.
Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles without approval of California's governor exceeded was illegal and violates the Tenth Amendment. The order applied only to the National Guard troops and not Marines who were also deployed to the LA protests. The judge said he would not rule on the Marines because they were not out on the streets yet.
“We’re talking about the president exercising his authority, and the president is of course limited in that authority. That’s the difference between a constitutional government and King George,” Breyer said during Thursday's court hearing, referring to the king of England during the American Revolution.
“This country was founded in response to a monarch, and the Constitution is a document of limitations,” Breyer said. “I’m trying to figure out where the lines are drawn.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom requested that the judge temporarily block Trump’s use of the National Guard specifically for immigration raids.
But Thursday’s hearing opened with Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer asking attorneys whether Trump followed the law when he called in the National Guard.
Thursday’s executive order is meant to centralize duties now split among five agencies and two Cabinet departments.
Former federal officials have warned that such a consolidation could be costly and increase the risk of catastrophic blazes as global warming makes wildfires more severe and destructive.
Officials have not disclosed how much the change could cost.
In its first months, the administration sharply reduced the ranks of firefighters through layoffs and retirement offers and temporarily cut off money for wildfire prevention work.
The Department of Homeland Security is notifying hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans that their temporary permission to live and work in the United States has been revoked and they should leave the country.
The termination notices are being sent by email to about 532,000 people who came to the country under the humanitarian parole program created by the Biden administration. They arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the U.S.
DHS said the letters informed people that both their temporary legal status and work permit were revoked “effective immediately.”
▶ Read more about the termination notices
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a news conference on President Donald Trump's spending and tax bill, Thursday, June 12, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The U.S. Capitol is seen through security fencing, set up on the National Mall, during preparations for an upcoming military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Washington. The Washington Monument is seen in background. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
