U.S. and Iranian officials concluded a new round of nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, against the backdrop of an expanded U.S. military presence in the Middle East and following weeks of deadly domestic turmoil in Iran.
Talks appear to have focused on Iran’s nuclear program, with U.S. officials seeking curbs on Tehran to keep it from developing a nuclear weapon. In exchange, Iran is seeking reprieve from crushing U.S. sanctions.
The sides met in Geneva on Tuesday for over three hours. Afterward, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that he and his U.S. counterparts had “much more serious discussions” than during the round earlier this month and that they “were able to reach a set of guiding principles,” according to a statement published by Iran’s state media.
But Araghchi cautioned that drafting an agreement would remain difficult. “Both sides have stances that will take some time to get closer to each other,” he said. A third round of talks will be held after the two teams draft and exchange possible texts of a deal, but no date has been set, according to Araghchi.
The United States has yet to comment on how Tuesday’s talks went. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late Monday, President Donald Trump said that the Iranian negotiators have been “tough” but that he hoped they would be “more reasonable.” Trump said the Iranians “want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal.”
Tensions have been mounting for weeks, raising fears of a military confrontation if talks fail. On Tuesday, Tehran again appeared to signal its ability to close the Strait of Hormuz by conducting a second day of military drills in the crucial choke point for the world’s oil.
In a statement Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran’s positions on nuclear issues, sanctions relief and broader framework for potential dialogue had been conveyed to the U.S. side through diplomatic channels.
An Iranian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, confirmed via text message that the indirect talks took place at the Omani Consulate. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, mediated the talks; he also did so this month when the two sides met in Muscat, the Omani capital.
The U.S. negotiating team is led by envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. They are also responsible for the Russia-Ukraine talks — raising the prospect that they may need to shuttle quickly between venues. Araghchi is leading the team from Iran.
The Swiss city was the scene of a striking confluence of high-stakes diplomacy on Tuesday as Russian, Ukrainian and American negotiators also planned to open the latest round of talks aimed at ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The Russia talks were scheduled to take place at the InterContinental Hotel, according to the Tass state news agency, about a seven-minute drive from the Omani Consulate.
Iranian and U.S. officials have described their latest diplomatic effort as positive, but significant differences appear to remain on key issues such as nuclear enrichment. Araghchi said Monday in a social media post that he was in Geneva “to achieve a fair and equitable deal.” But he added: “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
Since the earlier round of talks in Oman this month, Trump has expanded a military buildup in the region and repeatedly threatened the use of force if negotiations fail. Late last week, the Pentagon deployed a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region, joining at least a dozen other U.S. warships in the area.
Iran has threatened retaliation if attacked, and U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have said Tehran’s missile program poses a deadly threat to U.S. interests in the region, including more than a dozen military bases and tens of thousands of troops.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appeared to repeat those threats again Tuesday, suggesting that U.S. naval assets in the Persian Gulf could become a target in a direct military confrontation. “What is more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that can sink it to the bottom of the sea,” Khamenei said, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency Arabic.
It is unclear what compromises the two sides might be willing to make or accept, but details of various proposals have emerged, with the central issue continuing to be enrichment.
Trump said as recently as Friday that “we don’t want any enrichment” — a position strongly supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said in a speech Sunday that Iran must be required to relinquish all its enriched uranium and be barred from enriching more in any deal negotiated with the United States.
But in an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi suggested the U.S. was no longer insisting on zero enrichment. The “issue of zero enrichment is not an issue anymore, and as far as Iran is concerned,” Ravanchi said, “it is not on the table anymore.”
Ravanchi did not rule out an agreement to ship Iran’s stockpile of uranium out of the country. He also said that an Iranian offer to dilute its highly enriched uranium was proof of its willingness to compromise and that the sides had also discussed shared interests in critical minerals, oil and gas.
Tehran is demanding significant relief from U.S. sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Iran’s economic situation is dire, and without sanctions relief, the country’s leadership seems unable to improve living conditions for the population. Economic grievances sparked mass protests last month that morphed into anti-regime demonstrations and drew a vicious and deadly government response.
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