In a last-ditch effort to avert a war, the United States and Iran will hold talks nuclear talks today in Switzerland’s Geneva — even as President Donald Trump has continued to deploy more firepower to West Asia.
In a last-ditch effort to avert a war, the United States and Iran will on Thursday hold talks nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland.
Even as officials are gathering in Geneva, Trump has continued to ramp up military and economic pressure on Iran. The US military has moved more than 150 aircraft to West Asia since the last round of talks on February 17. The administration has also announced another tranche of sanctions on Iran.
A US official told Reuters that talks will involve US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the country’s principal negotiator, a US official told Reuters.
The US-Iran talks in Geneva will follow the ‘Oman format’ where Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi will mediate indirect talks between the two sides.
Trump has insisted that he wants to arrive at a diplomatic solution but remains open to an offensive against Iran.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain. I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen. We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump said on Tuesday.
Analysts have noted lately that Trump has deployed up to 40-50 per cent of American air power in West Asia for a potential offensive against Iran. Separately, there are tens of thousands of ground troops in the region and two aircraft carrier groups that comprise dozens of warships.
Is Trump expanding scope of talks with Iran?
Even as talks originally focussed on the Iranian nuclear programme, there are signs that Trump has decided to include the ballistic missile programme as well.
In the State of the Union address, Trump claimed that Iran is building could strike the United States.
“They have already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” said Trump.
As per reports, Iran is willing to agree to limits on its civil nuclear programme but not willing to budge on the ballistic missile programme.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed Trump to include Iran’s ballistic missile programme in the talks and secure a commitment to shut it down. Iran, meanwhile, has maintained that the missile programme was out of bounds in talks.
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