Iran, US reach understanding on main ‘guiding principles’ in Geneva nuclear talks

GENEVA – Iran and the United States reached an understanding on the main “guiding principles” in a second round of nuclear talks in Geneva on Feb 17, but work still needs to be done, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said.

The progress does not mean an agreement will be reached soon, but the path has started, he told Iranian media after the talks concluded.

Iranian state media reported earlier that Iran would partially shut down a vital global oil supply route, as it held talks over its disputed nuclear programme with the US, which has

sent a battle force

to the Gulf to press Tehran to make concessions.

US President Donald Trump said “regime change” in Tehran might be the best thing that can happen, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said any American attempts to depose his government would fail.

Just a few hours after the negotiations began, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that parts of the strategic Strait of Hormuz would close for a few hours due to “security precautions” while Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards

conduct military drills

in the world’s most vital oil export route.

Tehran has in the past threatened to shut down the strait to commercial shipping if it is attacked, a move that can choke off a fifth of global oil flows and drive up crude prices.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Jared Kushner took part in the negotiations, which are being mediated by Oman, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters, alongside Mr Araqchi.

Iranian state TV said a second round of talks had ended.

“We have entered certain details related to both the lifting of sanctions and nuclear subjects,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told state media before the talks ended.

“We are ready to continue these talks as long as it takes, the issues are complicated. There is no trust between the two parties, we have to continue the negotiations in these conditions,” he added.

Mr Baghaei said Tehran’s views on the nuclear issue, the lifting of sanctions and a framework for any understanding have been conveyed to the US side.

Earlier, Mr Trump said he himself would be involved “indirectly” in the Geneva talks, and that he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal.

“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Feb 16. “We could have had a deal instead of sending the B-2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. And we had to send the B-2s.”

The US joined Israel last June in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.

Khamenei defiant

Since the June strikes, Iran’s Islamic rulers have been

weakened by street protests

, put down at a cost of thousands of lives, against a cost-of-living crisis driven in part by international sanctions that have strangled Iran’s oil income.

Just after the talks started, Iranian media cited Mr Khamenei as saying Washington could not force out his government. The republic has been ruled by clerics since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“The US president says their army is the world’s strongest, but the strongest army in the world can sometimes be slapped so hard it cannot get up,” he said in comments published by Iranian media.

Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s missile stockpile. Tehran says it is willing only to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme – in exchange for sanctions relief – and that it will not give up uranium enrichment completely or discuss its missile programme.

Mr Khamenei reiterated Iran’s position that its formidable missiles stockpile is non-negotiable and that their type and range have nothing to do with the US.

A senior Iranian official said the success of the Geneva talks hinged on the US not making unrealistic demands and on its seriousness on lifting crippling economic sanctions on Iran.

If Trump orders an attack

Tehran and Washington were scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks in June 2025 when Israel

launched a bombing campaign

against Iran, and was then joined by US B-2 bombers that struck nuclear targets.

Tehran has since said it has halted uranium enrichment activity.

The meeting took place at the residence of the Omani ambassador to the UN amid a heavy security presence. Some cars with Iranian diplomatic licence plates were visible outside.

The US military is preparing for the possibility of weeks of operations against Iran if Mr Trump orders an attack, two US officials told Reuters.

Washington and Israel believe Iran aspires to build a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel’s existence. Iran says its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, even though it has enriched uranium far beyond the purity needed for power generation, and close to what is required for a bomb.

Iran has joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forgo atomic weapons and cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Israel, which has not signed the NPT, neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weaponry, under a decades-old ambiguity policy designed to deter surrounding enemies.

Scholars believe it does, having acquired the first bomb in 1966. Israeli journalists, circumscribed by military censorship, often refer cryptically to such capabilities or cite foreign media reporting on them. REUTERS