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The United States and Iran are set to resume high-stakes talks Saturday on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a week after an initial round of discussions that both sides described as “constructive”.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Rome, images broadcast early Saturday by Iranian state television showed, where he was set to join Oman-mediated talks with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.Iranian state television reported that the talks in the Italian capital would begin at 0830 GMT.The meeting comes a week after the two sides conducted what Iran called indirect talks in Muscat. Those were the first discussions at such a high level between the foes since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord in 2018.Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons — an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.Following his return to office in January, Trump revived his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against Iran.In March he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging renewed nuclear talks while warning of military action if diplomacy failed.”I’m not in a rush” to use the military option, Trump said on Thursday. “I think Iran wants to talk.” On Friday Araghchi said Iran “observed a degree of seriousness” on the US side during the first round but questioned their intentions.”Although we have serious doubts about the intentions and motivations of the American side, in any case we will participate in tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) negotiations,” he said at a press conference in Moscow.In a social media post early on Saturday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran was “aware that it is not a smooth path but we take every step with open eyes, relying also on the past experiences”.- ‘Crucial stage’ -In an interview published on Wednesday by French newspaper Le Monde, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb. During Trump’s first term, Washington withdrew from the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers which offered Iran relief from international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Tehran complied with the agreement for a year after Trump’s withdrawal before scaling back its compliance.Araghchi was a negotiator of the 2015 deal. His US counterpart in Rome, Witkoff, is a real estate magnate Trump has also tasked with talks on Ukraine.Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 limit in the deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged European countries to decide on whether to trigger the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 agreement, which would automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance.The option to trigger the mechanism expires in October this year.Iran has previously warned it could withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the mechanism were triggered.Grossi, who held talks with Iranian officials during a visit to Tehran this week, said the US and Iran were “at a very crucial stage” in the talks and “don’t have much time” to secure a deal. – ‘Non-negotiable’ -Iranian officials have insisted that the talks only focus on its nuclear programme and lifting of sanctions.Araghchi said a deal with the US was “likely” if Washington refrained from “making unreasonable and unrealistic demands,” without elaborating.Analysts had said the United States would push to include discussions over Iran’s ballistic missile programme as well as Tehran’s support for militants in the Middle East.Araghchi said Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “non-negotiable”, after Witkoff called for its complete halt. Witkoff had previously demanded only that Iran return to the ceiling set by the 2015 deal.On Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country’s military capabilities were off limits in the discussions.Iran’s regional influence and its missile capabilities were among its “red lines” in the talks, the official IRNA news agency reported.On Friday US ally Israel affirmed its commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying it had a “clear course of action” to prevent this.Khamenei on Tuesday said Iranians should not pin hopes on progress in the negotiations which “may or may not yield results.”

The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, the Pentagon said Friday.Washington has had troops in Syria for years as part of international efforts against the Islamic State (IS) group, which rose out of the chaos of the country’s civil war to seize swaths of territory there and in neighboring Iraq over a decade ago.The brutal jihadists have since suffered major defeats in both countries, but still remain a threat.”Today the secretary of defense directed the consolidation of US forces in Syria… to select locations,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, without specifying the sites where this would take place.”This deliberate and conditions-based process will bring the US footprint in Syria down to less than 1,000 US forces in the coming months,” he said.”As this consolidation takes place…  US Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of (IS) in Syria,” Parnell added, referring to the military command responsible for the region.President Donald Trump has long been skeptical of Washington’s presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops during his first term but ultimately leaving American forces in the country.As Islamist-led rebels pressed forward with a lightning offensive last December that ultimately overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Trump said Washington should “NOT GET INVOLVED!””Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump, then the president-elect, wrote on his Truth Social platform.- Years of war against IS -The 2014 onslaught by IS prompted a US-led air campaign in support of local ground forces — the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and  Iraqi government units.Washington also deployed thousands of American personnel to advise and assist local forces, with US troops in some cases directly fighting the jihadists.After years of bloody warfare, Iraq’s prime minister announced a final victory over IS in December 2017, while the SDF proclaimed the defeat of the group’s “caliphate” in March 2019 after seizing its final bastion in Syria.But the jihadists still have some fighters in the countryside of both countries, and US forces have long carried out periodic strikes and raids to help prevent the group’s resurgence.Washington stepped up military action against IS in Syria in the wake of Assad’s overthrow, though it has more recently shifted its focus to strikes targeting Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who have been attacking international shipping since late 2023.US forces in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by pro-Iran militants following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, but responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the attacks largely subsided.Washington for years said it had some 900 military personnel in Syria as part of international efforts against IS, but the Pentagon announced in December 2024 that the number of US troops in the country had doubled to around 2,000 earlier in the year.While the United States is reducing its forces in Syria, Iraq has also sought an end to the US-led coalition’s presence there, where Washington has said it has some 2,500 troops.The United States and Iraq have announced that the coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq by the end of 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region.

US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 80 people, Huthi rebels said Friday, in the deadliest attack of Washington’s 15-month campaign against the Iran-backed group.Thursday’s strikes on Ras Issa aimed to cut off supplies and funds for the rebels that control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, the US military said.Images broadcast by a Huthi-run television channel showed large blazes lighting up the night sky following the latest in an intensified barrage of attacks under US President Donald Trump.Huthi media later reported fresh strikes in and around the capital Sanaa on Friday night.Huthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said rescuers were still searching for bodies at the fuel terminal on the Red Sea, suggesting the number of dead could rise.The rebels’ Al-Masirah TV, citing local officials, said the toll from the strike had “risen to 80 dead and 150 wounded”. The Huthis later announced missile attacks targeting Israel and two US aircraft carriers. Israel’s military said on Friday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.Protesters chanting “Death to America! Death to Israel!” gathered in rebel-held cities around the country, including at a major demonstration in the capital Sanaa.”The American military buildup and continued aggression against our country will only lead to more counterattack and attack operations, clashes and confrontations,” Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree told the crowd in Sanaa.- ‘Signal to Tehran’ -The strikes on Thursday came as the United States prepares to resume negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme in Rome on Saturday, following warnings that Tehran is getting closer to building an atomic weapon.”The military actions in Yemen are clearly sending a signal to Tehran,” Mohammed Albasha, a US-based consultant, told AFP.The US military has hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes for the past month in a bid to stamp out their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Earlier on Friday, when the Ras Issa toll stood at 74, Alabashi said the overall number of deaths from renewed US strikes since March was 198.Claiming solidarity with Palestinians, the rebels began attacking the key maritime route and Israeli territory after the Gaza war began in October 2023.They paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire.In a statement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said: “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Huthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Huthi efforts to terrorise the entire region for over 10 years.”Al-Masirah TV, citing authorities at the port, said the attack had caused “significant damage” that “will affect navigation and the supply of oil”.The US strikes began in January 2024 but have multiplied under Trump, starting with an offensive that killed 53 people on March 15.Footage broadcast early Friday by Al-Masirah showed a fireball igniting off the coast as thick columns of smoke rose above what appeared to be an ongoing blaze.The Huthi TV station later screened interviews with survivors lying on stretchers, including one man with burns on his arms.”We ran away. The strikes came one after the other, then everything was on fire,” one man who said he worked at the port told Al-Masirah.- Shipping attacks -Israel carried out air strikes on Ras Issa and elsewhere in Yemen in January, describing the targets as military infrastructure. Similar Israeli strikes that also included Ras Issa took place in September.Iran called the latest US strikes “barbaric”, while Hamas Palestinian militants denounced them as “blatant aggression”.The US bombing campaign intensified last month following Huthi threats to resume attacks on international shipping in protest at Israel’s blockade of aid to Gaza.”The message today is unmistakable: the US is targeting not only Huthi military assets and personnel, but also their economic infrastructure,” Albasha said.Huthi attacks on the Red Sea shipping route, which normally carries about 12 percent of global trade, have forced many companies into costly detours around the tip of southern Africa.Separately, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce accused the Chinese satellite firm Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company of “directly supporting” Huthi attacks on “US interests”.Bruce did not initially provide details, but later referred to “a Chinese company providing satellite imagery to the Huthis”.