GENEVA, Feb 26 (Reuters) – The United States and Iran can reach a deal if Washington separates “nuclear and non-nuclear issues”, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that remaining differences need to be narrowed during the third round of talks in Geneva.
Negotiations have been intense and serious, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tehran’s right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes needs to be recognized and sanctions lifted.
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Iran and the United States are holding indirect talks in Geneva over their long-running nuclear dispute to avoid a conflict, after US President Donald Trump ordered a major military buildup in the region.
Washington, which says Iran is pursuing the ability to make a nuclear bomb, has long tried to link the talks to other issues, including Iran’s missile arsenal and its support for armed groups in the region.
Tehran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has agreed in principle to accept restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, but rejects linking the negotiations to other issues.
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Mediator Oman held out hope that Iran and the United States would make more progress in negotiations on Thursday after exchanging “positive and creative ideas” despite US concerns about Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
Reuters reported on Sunday that Tehran was offering new indefinite concessions in exchange for the removal of sanctions and recognition of its right to enrich uranium. Iran had said on Thursday it would show flexibility in negotiations.
Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said negotiators took a break after the start of the third round of talks on Thursday morning and that the negotiations would resume later in the day.
“Today, we exchanged creative and positive ideas in Geneva, and now the US and Iranian negotiators have taken a break. We will resume later today. We hope to make more progress,” he posted on X, without giving details.
BALLISTIC MISSILES ARE “BIG PROBLEM”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Iran’s refusal to discuss its ballistic missile program was a “major problem” that would have to be resolved eventually, as the missiles were “designed exclusively to attack the United States” and pose a threat to regional stability.
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“If it is not possible to make progress even on the nuclear program, it will be difficult to make progress on the issue of ballistic missiles as well,” Rubio told reporters in Saint Kitts.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told Press TV on Thursday that the negotiations would focus exclusively on nuclear issues and the lifting of sanctions, and that Tehran views them with “seriousness and flexibility.”
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have been negotiating indirectly with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. The two countries resumed negotiations this month.
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Trump briefly laid out his arguments for a possible attack on Iran in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, stressing that while he prefers a diplomatic solution, he will not allow Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Steve Holland, Patricia Zengerle, David Brunnstrom, Katharine Jackson and Joseph Ax in Washington; Francois Murphy in Vienna and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem)
