Iranian negotiators have arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, for the next round of nuclear negotiations with the United States, Iranian state media IRNA reports.
The Iranian negotiating party is led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi, with the American negotiators being Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
A pivotal issue in negotiations has been the future of uranium enrichment by Iran. The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, has suggested that Iran could dilute its uranium stockpile in exchange for US sanctions being lifted.
However, Araghchi has maintained that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran had the inalienable right to utilise nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Last week, in an interview with Fox News, Witkoff had clarified that US negotiators were given strict ‘red lines’ by US President Donald Trump. These ‘red lines’ included no uranium enrichment and the removal of uranium material from Iran.
“The President gave Jared and I direction before we went over there. There were red lines. Zero enrichment, we have to have the material back. They say it’s all about their civil program, yet they are enriching well beyond the number they need for civil nuclear,” claimed Witkoff.
In the interview, Witkoff stated that Iran was a week away from having ‘industrial grade bomb making material’.
This week, at the State of the Union Address, President Trump reiterated this claim by claiming that Iran not only was restarting attempts to create nuclear weapons but also already had the capacity to strike Europe and overseas US bases.
“They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America. After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular, nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over,” Trump said.
Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Iran, Esmaeil Baqaei, has denounced these words as a propagandist campaign spreading lies.
“’ Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth,’ is a law of propaganda coined by Nazi Joseph Goebbels. This is now systematically used by the U.S. administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime, to serve their sinister disinformation & misinformation campaign against the Nation of Iran. Whatever they’re alleging regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,” rebutted Baqaei.
Photo: @IRIMFA_EN
