WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) – Department of State policy planning director Michael Anton will lead a team of about a dozen U.S. government officials to negotiate with Iran in upcoming nuclear talks, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
Expert-level Iran-U.S. talks will take place on Saturday, Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said, with a third round of high-level nuclear talks due on the same day in Oman.
Iran and the United States agreed last Saturday to begin drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said after the talks in Rome that a U.S. official described as yielding very good progress.
Politico first reported the choice of Anton.
Anton was a spokesman for the White House National Security Council during Trump’s first term from 2017-2021. He also worked for former President George W. Bush’s NSC and is a former BlackRock managing director.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
