Iran, US to hold talks as Trump threatens force, imposes sanctions | News

Iran and the United States are set to begin a third round of nuclear talks in Switzerland, with both sides maintaining their preference for a diplomatic solution even as Washington imposed clear new sanctions and continue build up its military presence in the Middle East.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday and met with his Omani counterpart, Badr Albusaidi, who is facilitating the indirect talks scheduled for Thursday.

Before his departure, Araghchi said it was a “fair, balanced and fair deal”. within reachwhile reiterating that Iran was not seeking an atomic weapon and was not ready to give up its “right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.”

The talks come against a backdrop of continued mistrust, with rhetoric from both sides oscillating between engagement and confrontation.

In Washington, DC, US Vice President JD Vance accused Iran of trying to rebuild its nuclear program after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last June, and said Tehran should take Washington’s threats of military action seriously.

“The principle is very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If they try to rebuild a nuclear weapon, that causes problems for us,” he told reporters at the White House. “In fact, we’ve seen evidence that they’ve tried to do just that.”

Vance went on to say that US President Donald Trump wanted to “address that problem diplomatically” but “also has other options.”

There was no immediate comment from Tehran on Vance’s comments.

The status of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure remains unclear. Trump claimed that US strikes on Iran last year had “wiped out” the program, but International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have not been allowed to verify what, if anything, remains at the targeted sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

‘Big, big problem’

A day earlier, Trump appeared to lay the groundwork for another potential military confrontation in his State of the Union address, accusatory Iran harboring “sinister nuclear ambitions” and developing missiles capable of hitting the US – claims Iranian officials flatly rejected.

“Whatever they claim regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’,” wrote Esmaeil Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, on X.

He went on to compare the Trump administration’s approach to the propaganda tactics of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s information minister.

Speaking in Saint Kitts and Nevis, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the talks in Geneva would focus mainly on Iran’s nuclear program and reiterated Washington’s concerns about Iran’s ballistic missiles, which he said were trying to develop into intercontinental-range weapons.

Iranian insistence on excluding the missile program from negotiations, he said, was “a big, big problem.”

Araghchi said earlier that Iran’s missiles are of a “defensive nature”.

“They are just to build deterrence and help us defend ourselves,” he told news agency India Today.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the two sides seemed far apart on the core issues.

These include disagreements over Iranian uranium enrichment as well as non-nuclear matters “related to foreign aid, ballistic missiles, defense capabilities, as well as regional activities of the country.”

“The bottom line is that there are clearly gaps,” Asadi said. “And it remains to be seen whether diplomatic engagement can pave the way for a final solution between Washington and Tehran. Until then and for now, if anything is certain, it is uncertainty.”

The negotiations on Thursday are led on the American side by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The first round was held in Oman on 6 February, followed by a second session in Geneva on 17 February.

Araghchi said afterward that the two sides had reached a tentative understanding on the broad principles that will guide further discussions, although no substantive agreement had been reached.

US imposes new sanctions

Iran has warned that any US attack would trigger retaliatory strikes on US military bases throughout the Middle East, where tens of thousands of troops are deployed. Tehran has also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a significant portion of the world’s oil supply passes.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, summed up Tehran’s position bluntly.

“If you choose the table of diplomacy — a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected — we will also be at that table,” he said Wednesday, according to the semi-official Student News Network. “But if you decide to repeat past experiences through deception, lies, flawed analysis and false information and launch an attack in the midst of negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste the heavy blow of the Iranian nation.”

US Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins said Washington remains ready to respond to any escalation.

“Deterrence from our perspective comes through a show of force,” he said Wednesday.

“During a time of heightened tension, we’re going to make sure we have the forces in place to protect our troops; that’s what you’re seeing. Additionally, with respect to Iran… we remain focused on making sure we have the right forces in place to protect our troops, and that’s what we’re doing.”

The US has assembled its largest deployment of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades.

The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group has been stationed in the Arabian Sea since late January, while Trump ordered the USS Gerald R Ford – the world’s largest aircraft carrier – along with three destroyers and more than 5,000 additional military personnel to the region.

The buildup extends to air power.

Dozens of fighter jets, including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s and F-16s, have been tracked flying to the Middle East from bases in the US and Europe, according to the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a team of open-source analysts that monitors military flight activity.

Separately on Wednesday, the Department of the Treasury also announced sanctions against more than 30 individuals, entities and vessels he said helped finance Iran’s oil sales, ballistic missile program and weapons production.

“Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, obtain components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said the US is trying to increase its leverage with the military build-up as well as the latest sanctions.

“The hope is that Iran will come to an agreement to limit its uranium enrichment program, and also that there may be room for negotiations later on, not only its support for proxies in the region, but the limitation of its ballistic missile program,” Halkett said. “The US promises, should those concessions be made, it would provide the economic relief that Iran’s economy needs.”