Iran and the United States are set to begin a third round of nuclear negotiations in Switzerland, with both sides maintaining their preference for a diplomatic solution, even as Washington imposed sweeping new sanctions and continues to 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 his Omani counterpart, Badr Albusaidi, who is facilitating the indirect talks scheduled for Thursday.
Before his departure, Araghchi said a “fair, balanced and equitable deal” was within reach, while reiterating that Iran was not seeking an atomic weapon and was not ready to give up its “right to peaceful use of nuclear technology”.
The talks come against a backdrop of continued mistrust, with the rhetoric from both sides oscillating between confrontation and engagement.
In Washington, DC, US Vice President JD Vance accused Iran of attempting to rebuild its nuclear programme after US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites last June, and said Tehran should take Washington’s threats of military action seriously.
“The principle is very simple: Iran can’t 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 have tried to do exactly that.”
Vance went on to say that US President Donald Trump wanted to address “that problem diplomatically” but “has other options as well”.
The status of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure remains unclear. Trump has claimed that US attacks on Iran last year “obliterated” the programme, but the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have not been permitted to verify what, if anything, remains at the targeted sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
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