Iran, US agree to 'guiding principles' for nuclear deal at Geneva talks

Iran and the United States agreed to "a set of guiding principles" laying the groundwork for a broader deal during talks in Geneva on Tuesday, Tehran's top diplomat said, after the leaders of both countries traded warnings of military action.

The Omani-mediated talks were aimed at averting the possibility of US military intervention to curb Iran's nuclear programme, while Tehran is demanding the lifting of US sanctions that are crippling its economy.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier Tuesday that US President Donald Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic, as talks between the two countries began in Geneva.

"In one of his recent speeches, the US president said that for 47 years America has not succeeded in destroying the Islamic republic ... I tell you: you will not succeed either," said Khamenei in a speech. 

Khamenei's statement came hours after Trump warned Iran of potential consequences should it fail to strike a deal with the US.

As the talks began, Iranian media announced that Iran had fired live missiles toward the Strait of Hormuz, and said it will close the Strait for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns”.

This is the first time that Iran has closed parts of the Strait, an essential international waterway, since the US began threatening Iran with military action. Iran on Monday announced a maritime military exercise in waterways that are crucial international trade routes through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. Iran previously held a live fire drill in the Strait of Hormuz several weeks ago but did not announce closures. 

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian state TV reported Tuesday that the negotiations with the U.S. will be indirect and will focus only on Iran’s nuclear program, not domestic policies including its bloody crackdown on protesters last month. 

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Mediated by Oman, the recently resumed discussions are aimed at averting the possibility of US military action, with Tehran expressing cautious optimism at Washington’s “more realistic” position on its nuclear programme.

The first round of talks on February 6 were held in Oman and were indirect, with SUVs flying the American flag entering the palace venue only after it appeared the Iranian officials had left. The arrangements for Tuesday's round of negotiations were not clear.

Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were traveling for the new round of talks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Budapest, Hungary, said Monday that the US hopes to achieve a deal with Iran, despite the difficulties. “I’m not going to prejudge these talks,” Rubio said. “The president always prefers peaceful outcomes and negotiated outcomes to things.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the talks for Iran, met with the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency Monday in Geneva. 

“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote on X. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.” 

Read moreIran says US has 'more realistic' stance on nuclear issue as it begins Hormuz Strait drills

Araghchi, meanwhile, said on X that he too had come to “Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal”, but added there would be no “submission before threats”.

The foreign minister also said he was meeting in Geneva with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, “for deep technical discussion”.

The West fears the programme is aimed at making a bomb, which Tehran denies.

'I'll be involved in those talks,' Trump says

Talking to reporters Monday night aboard Air Force One,  Trump said of the US-Iran talks, “I’ll be involved in those talks – indirectly – and they’ll be very important, and we’ll see what can happen.”

“Typically, Iran’s a very tough negotiator,” he said, first describing Iran as “good negotiators” before correcting himself. “I would say they’re bad negotiators, because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential, and we had to send the B2s. I hope they’re going to be more reasonable.”

Trump added: “I think they want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal.”

Iran is marking 40 days, the traditional Muslim mourning period, since one of the deadliest days in the crackdown on protests that swept the country last month. Activists say at least 7,015 people have been killed, many in a bloody crackdown overnight between January 8 and 9.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the latest figures, has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in the country to verify deaths.

The figures have not been independently confirmed since authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.

Iran’s state news agency said the government would hold a memorial marking 40 days at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran, and blamed the demonstrations on “violent actions by armed groups allegedly directed by foreign intelligence agencies.”

Iran announced that its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard started a drill early Monday morning in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, waterways that are crucial international trade routes through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes.

Separately, EOS Risk Group said sailors passing through the region received a radio warning that the northern lane of the Strait of Hormuz, in Iranian territorial waters, likely would see a live-fire drill Tuesday. Iranian state TV did not mention the live-fire drill.

It was Iran's second warning in recent weeks about a live-fire drill. 

Last week, Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the U.S. has built up in the region. 

The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for over two weeks. US forces already have shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)