Officials from the United States and Iran are set to meet in Switzerland on February 17 for a second round of talks focused on reaching an agreement to limit Tehran’s nuclear program and avert the risk of war.
The two sides previously held indirect talks earlier this month in Oman, marking their first engagement since key Iranian nuclear facilities were bombed by Israel and the United States during a brief conflict in June last year.
Tuesday’s negotiations in Geneva come amid a significant buildup of U.S. military forces in the Middle East.
Tensions have escalated following nationwide protests in Iran last month, during which authorities carried out a harsh crackdown that, according to human rights groups, left thousands dead.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will meet in Geneva with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. Omani representatives will act as mediators.
“I am in Geneva with concrete ideas to reach a fair and balanced agreement. What is not on the table: surrender in the face of threats,” Araqchi wrote on X on February 16, as he arrived for talks with Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Tehran has indicated it is willing to accept limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from heavy U.S. economic sanctions, but it refuses to relinquish its right to enrich uranium.
Washington, meanwhile, has sought to broaden the scope of negotiations to include restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and an end to Tehran’s support for armed groups across the Middle East — demands Iran considers non-negotiable.
Deep-rooted distrust and longstanding hostility remain major obstacles to any agreement, alongside rising political costs for both governments.
Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, told Radio Farda that any positive concession toward the Islamic Republic could be seen as rewarding a regime accused of killing thousands of protesters in recent weeks.
For Iran, reaching a deal with a president who not only authorized military strikes against its nuclear facilities but also threatened intervention in its internal affairs presents significant political challenges, Vaez added.
Experts say negotiating a comprehensive new nuclear agreement will be extremely difficult. In the short term, Vaez argues, the only viable path to avoiding war may be a largely symbolic understanding that buys time and creates space for more detailed technical negotiations later.
Speaking in Slovakia on February 15, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump “has made clear he prefers diplomacy and achieving results through negotiation.”
“We are dealing with people who make political and geopolitical decisions based on pure theology, and that is a complicated matter,” Rubio added.
The Geneva talks follow repeated threats by Trump of potential military action against Tehran, initially over the violent suppression of protests and later over its nuclear program.
Western countries have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its program is solely for civilian purposes.
In 2015, world powers reached a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran aimed at preventing the development of an Iranian bomb. Sanctions were eased at the time, but Iran gradually scaled back its commitments after Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions during his first presidential term.
On February 13, Trump said regime change in Iran would be “the best thing that could happen.” He also confirmed that another aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, would soon join a “massive” U.S. military presence in the Arabian Sea.
