![\"High-stakes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Iran-US-Nuclear-Talks-Muscat-e1771325507762-1024x570.jpg\")
High-stakes Iran\u2013US Talks Wrap Up in Muscat<\/p>\nHigh-stakes Iran\u2013US Talks Wrap Up in Muscat<\/p>\n
Geneva- The US and Iran are holding their second round of talks on Tuesday in Geneva as the United States ramps up its military presence in the Middle East and Iran holds large-scale maritime exercises.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own.<\/p>\n
The first round of talks February 6 were held in Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, and were indirect, with SUVs flying the American flag entering the palace venue only after it appeared the Iranian officials had left. The arrangements for Tuesday\u2019s round of negotiations were not clear.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were travelling for the new round of talks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Budapest, Hungary, said Monday that the US hopes to achieve a deal with Iran, despite the difficulties. \u201cI\u2019m not going to prejudge these talks,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cThe president always prefers peaceful outcomes and negotiated outcomes to things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the talks for Iran, met with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency Monday in Geneva.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,\u201d Araghchi wrote on X. \u201cWhat is not on the table: submission before threats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talking to reporters Monday night aboard Air Force One on his way to Washington, US President Donald Trump said of the US-Iran talks, \u201cI\u2019ll be involved in those talks \u2014 indirectly \u2014 and they\u2019ll be very important, and we\u2019ll see what can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, Iran\u2019s a very tough negotiator,\u201d he said, first describing Iran as \u201cgood negotiators\u201d before correcting himself. \u201cI would say they\u2019re bad negotiators, because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential, and we had to send the B2s. I hope they\u2019re going to be more reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump added: \u201cI think they want to make a deal. I don\u2019t think they want the consequences of not making a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US is also hosting talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbour.<\/p>\n
Iran marks 40 days for crackdown dead<\/p>\n
Iran is marking 40 days, the traditional Muslim mourning period, since one of the deadliest days in the crackdown on protests last month. Several thousand,including hundreds of policemen have been killed between Jan. 8 and 9.<\/p>\n
Reports said the government would hold a memorial marking 40 days at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran, and blamed the \u201cviolent actions by armed groups directed by foreign intelligence agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran holds naval drills against the US military buildup<\/p>\n
Iran announced that its elite Revolutionary Guard started a drill early Monday morning in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, waterways that are crucial international trade routes through which 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil passes.<\/p>\n
Separately, EOS Risk Group said sailors passing through the region received a radio warning that the northern lane of the Strait of Hormuz, in Iranian territorial waters, likely would see a live-fire drill Tuesday. Iranian state TV did not mention the live-fire drill.<\/p>\n
It was Iran\u2019s second warning in recent weeks about a live-fire drill.<\/p>\n
Last week, Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world\u2019s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the US has built up in the region.<\/p>\n
The Ford, whose new deployment was first reported by The New York Times, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for over two weeks. US forces already have shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Iran says any deal must include easing of punishing sanctions<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is seeking a deal to limit Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment or hand over its supply of uranium.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signaled that Tehran could be open to compromise on the nuclear issue, but is looking for an easing of international sanctions led by the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball is in America\u2019s court. They have to prove they want to have a deal with us,\u201d Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC on Sunday. \u201cIf we see a sincerity on their part, I am sure that we will be on a road to have an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ready to discuss this and other issues related to our program provided that they are also ready to talk about the sanctions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The US and Iran were in the middle of months of meetings when Israel\u2019s launch of a 12-day war against Iran back in June instantly halted the talks. The US bombed Iranian nuclear sites during that war, likely destroying many of the centrifuges that spun uranium to near weapons-grade purity. Israel\u2019s attacks decimated Iran\u2019s air defenses and targeted its ballistic missile arsenal as well.<\/p>\n
Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High-stakes Iran\u2013US Talks Wrap Up in Muscat Geneva- The US and Iran are holding their second round of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,3188,4868],"class_list":["post-10304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-geneva","tag-iran","tag-iran-us-relations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}