Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi meets with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi in Geneva, Switzerland, February 16, 2026.PHOTO : REUTERS VIA IRANIAN FM OFFICE
GENEVA:
Iran and the United States were holding talks in Switzerland on Thursday, in a last-ditch bid to avert war under the shadow of the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East in decades.
The Oman-mediated discussions follow repeated threats from Donald Trump to strike Iran, with the US president last Thursday giving Tehran 15 days to reach a deal.
While Iran has insisted the discussions focus solely on its nuclear programme, the US wants Tehran’s missile programme and its support for militant groups in the region curtailed.
The US and Iranian delegations held a morning session at the Omani ambassador’s residence amid tight security, before pausing to hold consultations with their respective capitals.
AFP journalists saw convoys of cars belonging to US and Iranian diplomatic missions arriving back at the residence of Oman’s ambassador before 1700 GMT, following the break of several hours.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said after the morning session that the two sides expressed “unprecedented openness to new and creative ideas and solutions”.
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi joined the negotiations, a source close to the talks told AFP, with an Iranian state TV journalist also reporting he was attending.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump’s negotiating team would demand that Iran dismantle its three main nuclear sites and hand over all its remaining enriched uranium to the United States.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted ahead of the talks that the Islamic republic was not “at all” seeking a nuclear weapon.
