U.S. and Iranian officials are set to meet in Switzerland on Tuesday in a desperate effort to stave off military conflict, a senior Middle East diplomat with knowledge of talks between the two countries told MS NOW.
The indirect talks in Geneva are expected to include U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi serving as mediator. The meeting marks the latest diplomatic effort to avert U.S. military action against Tehran and a regional war.
“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi posted on X on Monday. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
Witkoff and Kushner previously held indirect talks with Iranian delegates in Muscat, Oman, on Feb. 6.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said the country is willing to reach a nuclear deal if the United States agrees to ease some or all of its sweeping sanctions, including restrictions targeting Iran’s oil exports, banking system and access to the global financial network.
“We are ready to discuss this and other issues related to our program provided that they are ready also to talk about the sanctions. Because sanctions — as we call it, ‘illegal sanctions’ — those sanctions have to be also on the table,” Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC on Sunday. “We cannot accept the notion that Iran has to do certain things without the other side committing itself to do their share. It has to be give and take; that’s what compromise is all about.”
Takht-Ravanchi also said the issue of zero uranium enrichment, which the U.S. had been pushing for, is no longer an issue in negotiations anymore as far as Iran is concerned — an indication that a deal may be reached.
Added pressure from Israel, however, could thwart the fragile talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, has demanded that Iran curb its ballistic missile program.
Trump has advocated for regime change in Iran and publicly feuded with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, each threatening the other with military action. The Pentagon sent a second aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest warship — to the Middle East to join the USS Abraham Lincoln and several other U.S. military assets.
“In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump said Friday.
Iran has warned that it will target U.S. military bases in the region if threatened.
Tuesday’s talks come on the heels of Iran’s lethal crackdown on protesters, which the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says has killed at least 7,000 people.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Ian Sherwood is the director of international newsgathering for MS NOW, a former executive editor for NBC News and a former deputy Washington bureau chief for the BBC.