The U.S. and Iran held their second round of talks about Iran’s nuclear program on Tuesday in Geneva as Iran said it can close the Strait of Hormuz for several hours for live fire military exercises and america ramps up its military forces within the region.
Because the talks began, Iranian media announced that Iran had fired live missiles toward the Strait of Hormuz, and said it can close the Strait for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”
That is the primary time that Iran has closed parts of the Strait, an important international waterway, because the U.S. began threatening Iran with military motion. Iran on Monday announced a maritime military exercise in waterways which can be crucial international trade routes through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes. Iran previously held a live fire drill within the Strait of Hormuz several weeks ago but didn’t announce closures.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is near the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets within the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state TV later reported that the most recent round of talks had ended after almost three hours.
One other round of indirect talks
Iranian state TV reported Tuesday that the negotiations with the U.S. can be indirect and can focus only on Iran’s nuclear program, not domestic policies including its bloody crackdown on protesters last month.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to make use of force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program. Iran has said it could respond with an attack of its own. Trump has also threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests.
The primary round of talks Feb. 6 were held in Oman, a sultanate on the eastern fringe of the Arabian Peninsula, and were indirect. Similarly to the last round of talks, the Iranians seemed to be meeting with Omani mediators individually from the Americans on Tuesday.
Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were traveling for the brand new round of talks.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who’s leading the talks for Iran, met with the top of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency Monday in Geneva.
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“I’m in Geneva with real ideas to realize a good and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote on X. “What just isn’t on the table: submission before threats.”
Talking to reporters Monday night aboard Air Force One on his method to Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to be involved within the talks, at the very least not directly. “I believe they have the desire to make a deal. I don’t think they need the implications of not making a deal,” he said.
The U.S. can be hosting talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbor.
Iran fires missiles into Strait of Hormuz in drill
Iran announced that the Revolutionary Guard began a drill early Monday morning within the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, that are crucial international shipping routes. It was the second time in recent weeks that Iran has held a live fire drill within the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stepped up his warnings to the U.S. over its buildup of military forces within the Middle East.
“In fact a warship is a dangerous apparatus, but more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that may sink the warship into the depths of the ocean,” Khamanei said, Iranian state TV reported.
He also warned the U.S. that “forcing the results of talks prematurely is a unsuitable and silly job.”
U.S. increases military presence
Last week, Trump said the united statesGerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to hitch other warships and military assets the U.S. has built up within the region.
The Ford, whose recent deployment was first reported by The Latest York Times, will join the united statesAbraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been within the region for over two weeks. U.S. forces have already got shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the identical day last week that Iran tried to stop a U.S.-flagged ship within the Strait of Hormuz.
Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into one other regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war within the Gaza Strip.
The Trump administration is in search of a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure it doesn’t develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it just isn’t pursuing weapons and has up to now resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment or hand over its supply of uranium.
The U.S. and Iran were in the midst of months of meetings when Israel’s launch of a 12-day war against Iran back in June immediately halted the talks. The U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites during that war, likely destroying most of the centrifuges that spun uranium to close weapons-grade purity. Israel’s attacks decimated Iran’s air defences and targeted its ballistic missile arsenal as well.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium as much as 60 per cent purity, a brief, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
Iran marks 40 days since deadliest a part of protest crackdowns
Iran is marking 40 days, the standard Muslim mourning period, since one among the deadliest days within the crackdown on protests that swept the country last month. Activists say at the very least 7,015 people have been killed, many in a bloody crackdown overnight between Jan. 8 and 9.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the most recent figures, has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists within the country to confirm deaths.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, given authorities have disrupted web access and international calls in Iran.
Iran’s state news agency said the federal government would hold a memorial marking 40 days on the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran, and blamed the demonstrations on “violent actions by armed groups allegedly directed by foreign intelligence agencies.”
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