US, Iran to hold new round of talks in Geneva
Iran and the United States will hold a second round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear programme next week, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has said. Oman, which welcomed the first round of indirect talks on February 6, will host the talks in Geneva, the Swiss ministry said on Saturday, without specifying which days. After the first discussions, US President Donald Trump warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement with his administration would be “very traumatic”.
Similar talks last year broke down in June as Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran that included the US bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear programme. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump also has threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests there. Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict.
Trump said the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean to the Mideast to join other military assets the US has built up in the region. He also said a change in power in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen”. The indirect talks on February 6 were between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. The top military commander in the Middle East was also present for the first time.
The Trump administration has maintained that Iran can have no uranium enrichment under any deal. Tehran says it won’t agree to that. Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
