Iran and the United States have reached an understanding on main “guiding principles” in talks aimed at resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, but Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, said that does not mean a deal is imminent.
“Different ideas have been presented, these ideas have been seriously discussed, ultimately we’ve been able to reach a general agreement on some guiding principles,” Araqchi told Iranian media after the talks concluded in Geneva yesterday.
The indirect discussions between U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, alongside Araqchi, were mediated by Oman.
The White House did not respond to emailed questions about the meeting, according to Reuters.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said in a post on X “much work is yet to be done” but Iran and the U.S. were leaving with “clear next steps”.
Just as talks began yesterday, Iranian state media said Iran would temporarily shut part of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil supply route, due to “security precautions” while Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards conducted military drills there.
Iran has in the past threatened to shut down the strait to commercial shipping if it is attacked, a move that would choke off a fifth of global oil flows and drive up crude prices.
Responding to comments by Trump that “regime change” in Iran might be the best course, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, warned that any U.S. attempts to depose his government would fail.
“The U.S. 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.
Earlier, Trump said he himself would be involved “indirectly” in the Geneva talks and that he believed Iran wanted to make a deal.
“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last Monday. “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 U.S. joined Israel last June in bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. The U.S. 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.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh