Report: US-Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume

The United States is preparing to resume negotiations with Iran over the Iranian nuclear program as early as next week, according to a report.

Middle East regional news site Amwaj.media reported that its sources in Tehran indicated the Iranian government had verified it will attend negotiations and had claimed the U.S. will join. It would be the first negotiation session since May 23.

A high-ranking source told Amwaj the meeting will "probably take place at the end of next week." The source also said that "a lack of confidence and actually a huge mistrust" were considered by Iranian leaders to be key obstacles to resuming talks after Israel and the U.S. conducted military strikes on Iranian nuclear weapons production sites.

There has been no independent confirmation of the resumption of negotiations from the Trump administration.

The Amwaj report said Oman will most likely be involved as a facilitator, as it had been in previous talks. The likely location for the talks appears to be Oman's embassy in Rome.

A source told the news outlet that Norwegian diplomats may also get involved in the process. The source told Amwaj that the talks are set to be handled as "indirect" dialogue, meaning the primary players will not speak or communicate in the same room but use facilitators to handle the back and forth.

The last scheduled round of negotiations was called off after Israel launched the opening barrage of its attacks on Iranian nuclear production sites in mid-June. After about two weeks, Trump ordered U.S. forces on the offensive against Iran to support Israel. Two days later Trump Iran had agreed to a ceasefire agreement.

There have been a series of statements and counter comments from Israel, the U.S., and Iran since then but no further military strikes.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the United Nations pulled its nuclear site inspectors out of Iran after Iran's parliament voted to suspend cooperative work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog team.