U.S. and Iranian negotiators sat down for high-stakes talks Tuesday in Geneva, with President Trump’s risk to launch a brand new assault on the Islamic Republic if a deal on its nuclear program cannot be hashed out looming giant over the discussions. Iran’s preliminary response to the conferences was constructive, however there was no instant readout from the U.S. delegation.
The negotiations, mediated by Oman, centered on Tehran’s nuclear program, however Israel’s chief has pressed Mr. Trump to incorporate limitations on Iran‘s standard ballistic missiles in any new settlement. Mr. Trump informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December that if no deal may very well be reached with Iran, the U.S. would assist Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program, based on two sources accustomed to the matter.
That risk of potential navy motion is backed up by a major U.S. navy presence within the waters round Iran — with one plane service strike group already within the space and one other on its approach.
In a speech delivered in Tehran on Tuesday because the talks acquired underway, Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was characteristically dismissive of the U.S. navy risk, saying: “A warship is definitely a harmful weapon, however much more harmful is the weapon able to sinking it.”
Talking Monday evening to reporters on Air Power One, Mr. Trump mentioned he can be concerned within the negotiations “not directly.” He mentioned Iran was “sometimes a really powerful negotiator,” however mentioned he believes the regime desires to make a deal.
“I do not assume they need the results of not making a deal,” he mentioned.
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The U.S. delegation in Geneva is led by Mr. Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Iranian group is headed by Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Pierre Albouy/REUTERS
Iran says “path has begun” to a deal after “extra constructive” talks
Aragachi mentioned after the Tuesday conferences that they had been held not directly, just like the earlier spherical a pair weeks in the past, with Omani officers ferrying between the Iranian and U.S. delegations.
“In comparison with the earlier one, the discussions had been utterly severe and the environment was extra constructive,” he mentioned, based on Iranian state TV community IRIB. “Varied concepts had been introduced and examined severely. In the end, we had been in a position to attain a normal settlement on quite a few guiding rules, and any more we’ll proceed on the idea of these rules and transfer towards drafting the textual content of a possible settlement. This doesn’t imply that we will shortly attain a ultimate settlement, however not less than the trail has begun.”
There was no confirmed timetable for this spherical of talks, however Tuesday’s discussions ended after a number of hours.
“We hope this course of might be accomplished as quickly as potential, and we’re ready to dedicate enough time to it,” Aragachi mentioned, based on IRIB. “In terms of drafting the textual content, the work turns into extra detailed and extra advanced. For my part, good progress was made in comparison with the earlier session, and we now have a clearer path forward, which I think about constructive.”
He mentioned “no particular date has been set” for the following conferences, however that “it was agreed that each side will work on drafts of a possible settlement, then alternate these texts, and after that decide a date for the third spherical.”
What does Iran need?
Tehran is determined to get damaging U.S. financial sanctions eased. Iran was already constrained by an extended record of worldwide sanctions when President Trump, throughout his first time period in workplace, pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the 2015 worldwide nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama.
After doing so, Mr. Trump hit Iran with much more draconian financial punishment, and the sanctions have left the nation’s funds in tatters, with sky-high inflation and a devaluation of the native foreign money making fundamental requirements arduous to afford even for the comparatively well-off.
The sanctions-induced financial struggling led to an eruption of anger in early January, sparking a wave of protests that was unprecedented — and which drew an unprecedented and violent crackdown in response.
Iranian authorities arrested 1000’s of individuals in the course of the protests, they usually have continued threatening anybody seen as having supported the unrest. However to go off one other mass rebellion, the Islamic Republic’s management is aware of the best choice can be to get sanctions lifted so Iranians can afford meals and gasoline once more.
What it is not prepared to do to make that occur, nevertheless, is essential. Iranian officers have insisted on preserving the nation’s proper to complement uranium for a civilian nuclear program.
In a submit on social media, Araghchi mentioned he was in Geneva “with actual concepts to attain a good and equitable deal. What isn’t on the desk: submission earlier than threats.”
Iran has signaled a willingness to barter on its nuclear enrichment program, and Araghchi met forward of the talks in Geneva with Rafael Grossi, the pinnacle of the United Nations’ Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA).
Iranian Ministry of Overseas Affairs/AFP/Getty 
The IAEA was tasked with monitoring Iran’s adherence to the final nuclear deal, which disintegrated slowly after Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the settlement in 2018.
What does the U.S. need?
The U.S. delegation is prone to push calls for designed to constrain Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, together with the potential discount or elimination of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and a brand new IAEA monitoring plan.
However the Trump administration has consulted with Israel recurrently on the matter, and Netanyahu has been adamant that any new cope with Iran should embody restrictions on ballistic missiles and Iran’s funding of proxy forces within the area. Israel additionally says Iran should not have any home nuclear enrichment capabilities in anyway.
It isn’t clear how a lot these calls for will issue into the discussions in Geneva this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned Monday that there was hope for a diplomatic breakthrough, including that President Trump “at all times prefers peaceable outcomes and negotiated outcomes to issues.”
What preceded the talks?
This spherical of negotiations come after years of false diplomatic begins — and one dramatic flare-up in June of 2025, when the U.S. joined a 12-day Israeli battle on Iran by conducting strikes on Iran’s nuclear services. Mr. Trump and Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth claimed these strikes obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, however the extent of the harm has been disputed.
Earlier than the June battle, Iran had cited the U.S. withdrawal from the earlier nuclear deal because it ramped up its enrichment program. It had began enriching uranium as much as 60% purity, a brief, technical step away from weapons-grade ranges, based on the IAEA, which mentioned Iran was the one nation on the earth to complement to that stage that wasn’t armed with the bomb.
The IAEA has known as on Iran for months to enhance transparency and cooperation with its inspectors, who proceed attempting to observe its enrichment program.
A primary spherical of oblique talks held in Oman earlier this month, which noticed the Arab nation’s international minister communicate individually with Iranian and U.S. negotiators, was described by Mr. Trump as “excellent,” whereas Araghchi known as the assembly a “good begin.”
