U.S. and Iranian negotiators sat down for high-stakes talks Tuesday in Geneva, with President Trump’s menace 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.
The negotiations, mediated by Oman, have been anticipated to concentrate on Tehran’s nuclear program, however Israel’s chief has pressed Mr. Trump to incorporate limitations on Iran‘s typical 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 help Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program, in accordance with two sources accustomed to the matter.
That menace of potential navy motion is backed up by a big U.S. navy presence within the waters round Iran — with one plane service strike group already within the space and one other on its method.
In a speech delivered in Tehran on Tuesday because the talks received underway, Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was characteristically dismissive of the U.S. navy menace, 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, President Trump stated he could be concerned within the negotiations “not directly.” He stated Iran was “usually a really robust negotiator,” however stated he believes the regime desires to make a deal.
“I do not assume they need the implications of not making a deal,” the president stated.
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. There was no confirmed timetable for this spherical of talks, however Tuesday’s discussions ended after a number of hours.
Pierre Albouy/REUTERS
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 primary 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 hundreds 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 most suitable choice could 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, nonetheless, is essential. Iranian officers have insisted on preserving the nation’s proper to counterpoint uranium for a civilian nuclear program.
In a put up on social media, Araghchi stated he was in Geneva “with actual concepts to realize a good and equitable deal. What shouldn’t be 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 more likely to push calls for designed to constrain Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, together with the attainable discount or removing of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and a brand new IAEA monitoring plan.
However the Trump administration has consulted with Israel often on the matter, and Netanyahu has been adamant that any new take care of Iran should embody restrictions on ballistic missiles and Iran’s funding of proxy forces within the area. Israel additionally says Iran shouldn’t have any home nuclear enrichment capabilities in any respect.
It’s not clear how a lot these calls for will issue into the discussions in Geneva this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Monday that there was hope for a diplomatic breakthrough, including that President Trump “all the time 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 injury 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, in accordance with the IAEA, which stated Iran was the one nation on the earth to counterpoint to that stage that wasn’t armed with the bomb.
The IAEA has referred to as on Iran for months to enhance transparency and cooperation with its inspectors, who proceed making an attempt 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 converse individually with Iranian and U.S. negotiators, was described by Mr. Trump as “excellent,” whereas Araghchi referred to as the assembly a “good begin.”
