Iran and the United States will hold the latest round of negotiations in Geneva this Thursday (26), with the aim of resolving their long-running nuclear dispute and preventing new American attacks against the country, following a significant increase in its military power.
The two countries resumed talks this month, seeking to overcome a decades-long impasse over Iran’s nuclear program, which Washington, other Western countries and Israel believe is aimed at building nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this accusation.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, will participate in indirect negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, an American official told Reuters news agency.
The meeting follows discussions held in Geneva last week and will again be mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday (24), Trump briefly presented his arguments in favor of a possible attack on Iran, emphasizing that although he preferred a diplomatic solution, .
He has deployed fighter jets, aircraft carrier strike groups, as well as destroyers and cruisers to the region, hoping to pressure Iran into making concessions.
While the talks focus on Iran’s nuclear program, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Iran’s refusal to discuss its ballistic missile program is one that will have to be resolved eventually, as the missiles are “designed exclusively to target the United States” and pose a threat to regional stability.
Pressure inside and outside Iran
The United States has — its largest military deployments in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq — raising fears of a broader regional conflict.
In June last year, the US joined Israel in attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran has threatened to retaliate violently if attacked again.
Trump said on February 19 that Iran needs to close a , warning that otherwise “very bad things” would happen.
Oil prices rose slightly on Thursday as investors assessed whether U.S.-Iran talks could avert a military conflict that threatens to disrupt supplies, although gains were limited by rising U.S. crude inventories.
Saudi Arabia is increasing its oil production and exports as part of a contingency plan in case a US attack on Iran disrupts supplies from the Middle East, two sources said on Wednesday (25).
Araqchi stated on Tuesday (24) that his country seeks a fair and quick agreement, but reiterated that it will not give up its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Washington considers uranium enrichment in Iran a potential path to obtaining nuclear weapons.
“An agreement is within reach, but only if diplomacy is prioritized,” Araqchi said in a statement released by X.
Reuters reported on Sunday that Tehran was offering new concessions in exchange for lifting sanctions and recognizing its right to enrich uranium, seeking to avoid a US attack.
However, both sides remain deeply divided — including over the scope and timing of the easing of harsh US sanctions — a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
In Iran, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, faces the most serious crisis of his 36 years in office, with an economy weakened by the tightening of sanctions and the resumption of protests after the major disturbances and bloody repression in January.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that Khamenei had banned weapons of mass destruction, which “clearly means that Tehran will not develop nuclear weapons”, reiterating a fatwa issued in the early 2000s.
The Iranian leadership maintains that its nuclear program remains within the limits of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), ratified in 1970. The NPT allows civilian nuclear activities in exchange for the renunciation of atomic weapons and cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, is expected to be in Geneva during the negotiations for further discussions, as he did last week.
Israel, which never joined the NPT, is widely considered by governments in the region to have nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms nor denies this.
