GENEVA, Feb 26 - Diplomacy returned to Geneva on Thursday as U.S. and Iranian delegations opened a new round of indirect talks intended to address long-standing disagreements over Iran's nuclear activities and to defuse growing military tensions.
Officials said the sessions, renewed earlier this month, aim to make progress on a dispute that Western governments, including the United States and Israel, view as centring on Iran's potential to develop nuclear arms - a charge Tehran denies. The talks are being mediated by Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and follow a sequence of discussions in Geneva last week.
Attending the indirect negotiations for the United States will be U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, while Iran will be represented by its Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, a U.S. official said. The meetings are framed by an increasingly tense security backdrop: the U.S. has been assembling a substantial military presence in the Middle East, prompting fears of wider regional confrontation.
U.S. President Donald Trump outlined the possibility of military action in his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, while also saying he preferred a diplomatic resolution and that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Vice President JD Vance reiterated the administration’s position in a television interview, saying: "Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. That would be the ultimate military objective, if that’s the route that (Trump) chose."
Last June, the United States and Israel jointly struck Iranian nuclear sites, a development Iran has warned it would respond to forcefully if attacked again. In that charged atmosphere, President Trump told Iranian leaders on February 19 that Tehran must reach an agreement within 10-15 days, warning that "really bad things" would otherwise occur.
On the diplomatic front, Foreign Minister Araqchi said on Tuesday that Iran seeks a fair and swift accord but would not renounce its right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology - a distinction Washington views with scepticism because it considers enrichment inside Iran a potential pathway to nuclear weapons. Araqchi also said in a statement on X: "A deal is within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority."
There have been indications that Tehran may be prepared to offer fresh concessions in exchange for removal of sanctions and formal recognition of its right to enrich uranium, a move intended to lessen the prospect of U.S. military action. Reporting over the weekend suggested such concessions were on the table as Iran seeks to avert an attack. Despite this, officials on both sides remain sharply divided, including over how and when sanctions relief would be delivered, a senior Iranian official said.
Domestic pressures within Iran add urgency to the negotiations. The country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is confronting what has been described as the most serious crisis of his 36-year rule, driven by an economy weakened by tighter sanctions and renewed protests following major unrest and a bloody crackdown in January.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's director, Rafael Grossi, is also expected to be in Geneva during the talks to engage with both delegations, having held meetings with the parties the previous week. His involvement underscores the technical and verification dimensions that persist alongside the political negotiations.
Context and stakes
The Geneva talks bring together senior U.S. envoys and Iran's foreign minister under Omani mediation, with a high-level international agency official present. Negotiators face a narrow window to reconcile competing demands over enrichment, sanctions relief and sequencing of any deal while operating beneath the shadow of a substantial U.S. military presence in the region.