An Iranian delegation headed by its prime diplomat arrived in Geneva on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) for talks with the U.S., because the Islamic republic’s president struck an upbeat tone concerning the prospect for a negotiated settlement to avert recent battle.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened strikes if Iran fails to chop a deal on its atomic programme, and in his State of the Union deal with on Tuesday (February 24), the U.S. President accused Tehran of “sinister nuclear ambitions” after he ordered an enormous navy deployment across the Gulf.
Piling on the strain, the U.S. introduced recent sanctions focusing on Iran on Wednesday as Vice President J.D. Vance warned Tehran to take Washington’s threats of navy motion “significantly”.
However Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian mentioned that he had a “beneficial outlook for the negotiations”.
“We’re persevering with the method underneath the steering of the supreme chief in order that we will transfer past this ‘neither warfare nor peace’ state of affairs,” Pezeshkian mentioned in a speech.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi and his negotiating workforce arrived within the Swiss metropolis of Geneva on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) for the crunch talks to be held the next day, Iran’s authorities mentioned.
The delegation is scheduled to satisfy with Oman’s overseas minister later Wednesday night “to current Iran’s place on the lifting of sanctions and the nuclear challenge”, Iran’s overseas ministry mentioned in a press release.
Mr. Trump in his deal with mentioned that Iran was “at this second once more pursuing their sinister nuclear ambitions”. However Iranian overseas ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei refuted these claims as “merely the repetition of ‘huge lies'”.
‘Most strain’
The West believes Iran is searching for an atomic bomb, however Tehran insists its nuclear programme is peaceable.
“My desire is to resolve this drawback by diplomacy however one factor is for certain: I’ll by no means permit the world’s primary sponsor of terror, which they’re by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Mr. Vance mentioned Mr. Trump has “quite a lot of different instruments at his disposal to make sure” that Iran doesn’t develop nuclear weapons.
“He is proven a willingness to make use of them, and I hope the Iranians take it significantly within the negotiations tomorrow,” the vice-president advised Fox Information.
The U.S. Treasury Division additionally introduced new sanctions focusing on greater than 30 people, entities, and vessels mentioned to be enabling “illicit Iranian petroleum gross sales” and weapons manufacturing.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned the Trump administration will proceed to push for “most strain on Iran to focus on the regime’s weapons capabilities and help for terrorism”.
Iran and the U.S. held 5 rounds of nuclear talks final yr, however these negotiations ended after Israel’s unprecedented assault on Iran triggered a 12-day warfare that Washington briefly joined.
Throughout his first time period, Mr. Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 deal which supplied Tehran sanctions aid in return for drastic curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme.
‘Persons are struggling’
In latest weeks Trump has deployed two plane service teams and dozens of different warplanes to the area to again up his threats, and Iran has repeatedly mentioned it could reply firmly to any assault, even a restricted one.
Tehran residents who spoke to AFP on Wednesday have been divided as as to whether there could be renewed battle.
Some mentioned warfare was all however inevitable, whereas one salesman who gave his title as Mehdi predicted the negotiations would succeed, saying: “The People are bluffing.”
Homemaker Tayebeh famous that Mr. Trump had “mentioned that warfare could be very unhealthy for Iran”.
“There could be famine and other people would undergo lots. Persons are struggling now, however at the very least with warfare, our destiny could be clear,” she added.
Emile Hokayem, senior fellow for West Asia safety on the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research, mentioned the massive navy outlay carried a political price for Mr. Trump.
“It seems like President Trump has cornered himself,” Hokayem mentioned, including the US chief might have predicted the “Iranians would cave rapidly”, which they’ve but to do.
“At this level, the pressure posture is such that if the US have been to drag again with out (an settlement), it may come on the credibility of the president himself.”
Printed – February 26, 2026 02:20 am IST