Top State Department official Michael Anton will lead the US technical team working to negotiate a new Iran nuclear deal, according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
Anton, the State Department’s head of policy planning, will head the team of roughly 12 working level experts from various agencies of the US government, a source familiar told CNN.
Bruce would not go into details about how Anton was chosen for the role or who else is on the technical team.
The technical talks are expected to be held Saturday in Oman. This team will discuss more granular details about a path toward a new nuclear agreement with Tehran, such as potential sanctions relief and limitations on Iran’s nuclear program. This will be the first round of technical talks.
Another round of political-level talks, led by US envoy Steve Witkoff, is also expected Saturday, CNN reported previously, but sources noted that the planning has been fluid.
Politico first reported Anton’s role leading the technical team.
Some background: The two countries have had decades of animosity and have long been in dispute about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. US President Donald Trump has insisted on striking a new nuclear deal within a matter of weeks.
The US and Iran had a second round of talks in Rome, Italy last week. The Trump administration expressed optimism following the talks, pointing to “very good progress” following the meeting. “Today, in Rome, over four hours in our second round of talks, we made very good progress in our direct and indirect discussions,” a senior administration official told CNN
CNN’s Betsy Klein, Jennifer Hansler and Sophie Tanno contributed to this report, which was updated with State Department attribution.
