The Arab Weekly

The fourth round of US Iran nuclear was postponed to an unspecified date while President Donald Trump ratcheted up economic pressures on Tehran.

The US president vowed strict enforcement of the new measures, a day after the United States imposed sanctions on seven companies accused of transporting Iranian-origin petroleum products.

“All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions,” he wrote.

Trump’s comments follow the postponement of the latest US talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, which had been due to take place in Rome on Saturday. A senior Iranian official told Reuters a new date will be set “depending on the US approach.”

“US sanctions on Iran during the nuclear talks are not helping the sides to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomacy,” the official told Reuters.

“Depending on the US approach, the date of the next round of talks will be announced,” he added.

Oman, which mediated earlier sessions of the US-Iran talks, said on Thursday the next round of nuclear discussions provisionally planned for May 3 would be rescheduled for “logistical reasons”.

However, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the United States had never confirmed its participation in the fourth round of talks in Rome.

The source said the timing and venue of the next round of talks have yet to be confirmed but were expected in “the near future”.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran would continue to engage “seriously and resolutely” in result-oriented negotiations with the US, state media reported.

Iran and three European powers, Britain, France and Germany, were scheduled to meet in Rome on Friday to improve strained ties over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme during this time of high-stakes talks between Tehran and Washington, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday. However, the senior Iranian official who spoke to Reuters said on Thursday that it was now “not certain” whether Friday’s meeting would go ahead.

Trump’s administration has targeted Tehran with a series of sanctions on entities including a China-based crude oil storage terminal and an independent refiner it has accused of being involved in illicit trade in oil and petrochemicals.

In February Trump restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran which includes efforts to drive its oil exports to zero and help prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Secondary sanctions are those where one country seeks to punish a second country for trading with a third by barring access to its own market, a particularly powerful tool for the United States because of the size of its economy.

Analysts have said that to really crack down on Iran’s oil exports the US would have to impose secondary sanctions on entities such as Chinese banks that facilitate the purchases of Iranian oil. China is the largest buyer of Iranian crude.

Washington and Tehran have been conducting negotiations over the past month on a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of financial sanctions.

Trump, who ripped up an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has voiced hope of securing a fresh agreement to resolve concerns and stave off the possibility of an Israeli military strike on Iran.

Yet, he has openly spoken of his ambivalence. On returning to office, he vowed a return to “maximum pressure” but said he was doing so reluctantly, at the behest of hawkish advisors.

Iran wants relief from sweeping sanctions imposed by Trump in the first term, including a US attempt to bar all countries from buying Iranian oil.

Iran accused the United States on Thursday of “contradictory behaviour and provocative statements” after Washington warned Tehran of consequences for backing Yemen’s Houthis and imposed new oil-related sanctions on it in the midst of nuclear talks.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday warned Iran on social media over support to Yemen’s Houthi insurgents, who are being pounded by US air strikes over their missile firings in the Red Sea in purported solidarity with the Palestinians.

“You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing,” Hegseth wrote.