Iran says “clearer path ahead” to nuclear deal with U.S. after talks in Geneva under shadow of Trump’s threats

February 17, 2026 / 10:03 AM EST / CBS News

U.S. and Iranian negotiators sat down for high-stakes talks Tuesday in Geneva, with President Trump’s threat to launch a new attack on the Islamic Republic if a deal on its nuclear program can’t be hashed out looming large over the discussions. Iran’s initial reaction to the meetings was positive, but there was no immediate readout from the U.S. delegation.

The negotiations, mediated by Oman, focused on Tehran’s nuclear program, but Israel’s leader has pressed Mr. Trump to include limitations on Iran’s conventional ballistic missiles in any new agreement. Mr. Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December that if no deal could be reached with Iran, the U.S. would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

That threat of potential military action is backed up by a significant U.S. military presence in the waters around Iran — with one aircraft carrier strike group already in the area and another on its way.

In a speech delivered in Tehran on Tuesday as the talks got underway, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was characteristically dismissive of the U.S. military threat, saying: “A warship is certainly a dangerous weapon, but even more dangerous is the weapon capable of sinking it.”

Speaking Monday night to reporters on Air Force One, Mr. Trump said he would be involved in the negotiations “indirectly.” He said Iran was “typically a very tough negotiator,” but said he believes the regime wants to make a deal.

“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” he said.

The U.S. delegation in Geneva is led by Mr. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Iranian team is headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

People carry placards at a protest near the United Nations office, as the second round of nuclear talks between U.S. and Iran takes place, in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 17, 2026. Pierre Albouy/REUTERS

Iran says “path has begun” to a deal after “more constructive” talks

Aragachi said after the Tuesday meetings that they were held indirectly, like the previous round a couple weeks ago, with Omani officials ferrying between the Iranian and U.S. delegations.

“Compared to the previous one, the discussions were completely serious and the atmosphere was more constructive,” he said, according to Iranian state TV network IRIB. “Various ideas were presented and examined seriously. Ultimately, we were able to reach a general agreement on a number of guiding principles, and from now on we will proceed on the basis of those principles and move toward drafting the text of a potential agreement. This does not mean that we can quickly reach a final agreement, but at least the path has begun.”

There was no confirmed timetable for this round of talks, but Tuesday’s discussions ended after several hours.

“We hope this process can be completed as soon as possible, and we are prepared to devote sufficient time to it,” Aragachi said, according to IRIB. “When it comes to drafting the text, the work becomes more detailed and more complex. In my view, good progress was made compared to the previous session, and we now have a clearer path ahead, which I consider positive.”

He said “no specific date has been set” for the next meetings, but that “it was agreed that both sides will work on drafts of a potential agreement, then exchange those texts, and after that determine a date for the third round.”

What does Iran want?

Tehran is desperate to get damaging U.S. economic sanctions eased. Iran was already constrained by a long list of international sanctions when President Trump, during his first term in office, pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the 2015 international nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama.

After doing so, Mr. Trump hit Iran with even more draconian economic punishment, and the sanctions have left the country’s finances in tatters, with sky-high inflation and a devaluation of the local currency making basic necessities hard to afford even for the relatively well-off.

The sanctions-induced economic suffering led to an eruption of anger in early January, sparking a wave of protests that was unprecedented — and which drew an unprecedented and violent crackdown in response.

Iranian authorities arrested thousands of people during the protests, and they have continued threatening anyone seen as having supported the unrest. But to head off another mass uprising, the Islamic Republic’s leadership knows the best option would be to get sanctions lifted so Iranians can afford food and fuel again.

What it’s not willing to do to make that happen, however, is crucial. Iranian officials have insisted on preserving the country’s right to enrich uranium for a civilian nuclear program.

In a post on social media, Araghchi said he was in Geneva “with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal. What is not on the table: submission before threats.”

Iran has signaled a willingness to negotiate on its nuclear enrichment program, and Araghchi met ahead of the talks in Geneva with Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A handout photo released by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (left) shaking hands with International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi during a meeting in Geneva, Feb. 16, 2026. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/AFP/Getty

The IAEA was tasked with monitoring Iran’s adherence to the last nuclear deal, which disintegrated slowly after Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018.

What does the U.S. want?

The U.S. delegation is likely to push demands designed to constrain Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, including the possible reduction or removal of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and a new IAEA monitoring plan.

But the Trump administration has consulted with Israel regularly on the matter, and Netanyahu has been adamant that any new deal with Iran must include restrictions on ballistic missiles and Iran’s funding of proxy forces in the region. Israel also says Iran should have no domestic nuclear enrichment capabilities whatsoever.

It is not clear how much those demands will factor into the discussions in Geneva this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that there was hope for a diplomatic breakthrough, adding that President Trump “always prefers peaceful outcomes and negotiated outcomes to things.”

What preceded the talks?

This round of negotiations come after years of false diplomatic starts — and one dramatic flare-up in June of 2025, when the U.S. joined a 12-day Israeli war on Iran by conducting strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Mr. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed those strikes obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, but the extent of the damage has been disputed.

Before the June war, Iran had cited the U.S. withdrawal from the previous nuclear deal as it ramped up its enrichment program. It had started enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels, according to the IAEA, which said Iran was the only country in the world to enrich to that level that wasn’t armed with the bomb.

The IAEA has called on Iran for months to improve transparency and cooperation with its inspectors, who continue trying to monitor its enrichment program.

A first round of indirect talks held in Oman earlier this month, which saw the Arab nation’s foreign minister speak separately with Iranian and U.S. negotiators, was described by Mr. Trump as “very good,” while Araghchi called the meeting a “good start.”