US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held more than three hours of negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Thursday in a push to secure a breakthrough on a nuclear deal, with the Omani foreign minister saying the talks will resume later after a pause.
It’s being reported that the message Kushner and Witkoff deliver to Trump after the meeting will shape the president’s decision on whether the launch a military attack on Tehran or refrain for implementation of a permanent deal. While Trump declared in Tuesday’s State of the Union that he prefers diplomacy, he also presented a direct case for war – something which remains deeply unpopular among the American people.
In these and other indirect talks, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi relayed messages between the sides, and then another format has involved direct discussions between US and Iranian negotiators.
Iran presented its long-awaited draft proposal for a nuclear agreement, though not much in the way of details have been revealed. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Raphael Grossi was among those who participated in the negotiations.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, the main mediator, said of the Thursday talks that “we’ve been exchanging creative and positive ideas” and “hope to make more progress.”
Meanwhile, a former head of the IAEA has warned that all wars, “including ‘wars of choice’ have horrific costs” as fears of major conflict between the US and Iran escalate.
Reports that Thursday talks stalled after US side demanded zero enrichment…
🔴🔴 Breaking// Diplomatic sources say the Araghchi–Witkoff talks in Geneva stalled after the U.S. side insisted on “zero enrichment” and the transfer of all 60% enriched uranium to Washington.
Reuters, citing a senior Iranian official, reports that the U.S. also raised…
— Ahmad Samadi (@AhmadSamadi1974) February 26, 2026
“The US is intensifying the drumbeat of war against Iran, with zero explanation of the non-existent legal authority to use force and zero evidence of an ‘imminent threat’ other than hypothetical scenarios based on possible future intentions,” Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on X.
“That is the reason for the restraints and limitations established by international norms… This is Iraq redux … it seems we never learn,” he emphasized.
Fresh reporting in The Wall Street Journal has laid out the main US sticking points:
In the talks, now under way in Geneva, the U.S. negotiators were expected to make clear Iran must dismantle its three main nuclear sites—at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—and deliver all of its remaining enriched uranium to the U.S., officials said.
They were also expected to insist that any nuclear deal must last forever and not sunset—the way restrictions rolled off over time under a nuclear pact negotiated under the Obama administration that Republicans have long said was too weak. Trump pulled out of that deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in his first term, reimposing tough sanctions on Iran.
Here the demands US brought to Iran in Geneva:
1) Destroy all 3 nuclear sites: Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan
2) Deliver all enriched uranium to US
3) No sunset clauses
4) Zero enrichment, but can keep Tehran reactor
5) Minimal sanctions relief up front; more if Iran compliant
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) February 26, 2026
These are the very nuclear sites that the US said time and again it “obliterated” during the June war. This comes off Vice President J.D. Vance just the day prior stating that the White House “has seen evidence” that Iran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon.
So Washington is going from proclaiming Iran’s nuclear sites were obliterated to now saying there’s evidence of the Iranians trying to clandestinely build a nuclear warhead. Of course, no evidence or so much as a reference to some kind of intelligence report has been presented to the world.
⚠️ ‘We’ve seen evidence’ Iran is trying to rebuild nuclear weapons says @VP JD Vance.
We’ve heard this exact line before…
Colin Powell at the UN, February 5 2003:
‘We’ve seen evidence’ of Iraq’s mobile bioweapons labs & WMDs.We all remember what happened next. Turned… pic.twitter.com/O7KiyAsiwx
— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) February 25, 2026
There are indeed mounting concerns that history is about to repeat itself, but this time there’s possibly many more American troops in harm’s way, given the significant reach and capabilities of Iran’s ballistic missiles and long-range drones.
* * *
And, well, which is it?
Secretary Rubio said Iran is *not* enriching uranium right now. That seems to contradict the description of Iran’s nuclear program made on Fox over the weekend by US envoy Witkoff pic.twitter.com/uEFvkG1ZqV
— Margaret Brennan (@margbrennan) February 26, 2026
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