{"id":302242,"date":"2026-02-17T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302242\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:47:08","slug":"trump-says-he-will-be-involved-indirectly-in-iran-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302242\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he will be involved ‘indirectly’ in Iran talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump has said that he would be involved “indirectly” \u2060in high-stakes talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme set for today in Geneva, adding he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly. And they’ll be very important,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.<\/p>\n

Tensions are soaring ahead of the talks, with the US deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The US military is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, US officials have said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the prospects for a deal, Mr Trump said Iran has long sought a tough posture in negotiations but learned the consequences of that approach last summer when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump suggested Tehran was motivated this time to negotiate.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n

\"An
\nThe US navy has been building up in the Arabian Sea<\/p>\n

Prior to the US strikes last June, US-Iran \u2060nuclear talks had stalled over Washington’s demand that Tehran forgo enrichment on its soil, which the US views as a pathway to an Iranian nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

“We could have had a deal instead of sending the B-2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. And we had to send the B-2s,” Mr Trump said, referring to the bat-winged US stealth bombers that carried out the bombings.<\/p>\n

“I hope they’re going to be more reasonable.”<\/p>\n

The remarks contrast with those by the US president on Friday, when he embraced potential regime change in Iran and lamented \u200cdecades of failed talks.<\/p>\n

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with the UN nuclear watchdog chief yesterday, saying in a post on X he was in Geneva to “achieve a fair and equitable deal”.<\/p>\n

“What is not on the table: submission \u2060before threats,” Mr Araghchi said.<\/p>\n

\"Iranian
\nUN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi met with Abbas Araghchi in Geneva yesterday<\/p>\n

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been calling on Iran for months to say what happened to its stockpile \u200cof 440kg (970 pounds) of highly enriched uranium following the Israeli-US strikes and let inspections fully resume, including in three key sites \u2060that were bombed in \u200cJune last year: Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.<\/p>\n

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation against any attack, which would choke a fifth of global oil flows and send crude prices sharply higher.<\/p>\n

Iran held a military drill yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international waterway and oil export route from Gulf Arab states, which have been appealing for \u2060diplomacy to end the dispute.<\/p>\n

Despite Mr Trump’s comments about Iran seeking a deal, the talks face major potential stumbling blocks. Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to \u2060non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s missile stockpile.<\/p>\n

Tehran says it is only willing to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief and won’t accept zero uranium enrichment. It says its missile capabilities are off the table.<\/p>\n

Speaking during a visit to Hungary yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said reaching a deal with Tehran would be hard.<\/p>\n

“I think that there’s an opportunity here to diplomatically reach an agreement … but I don’t want to overstate it either,” Mr Rubio said.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be hard. It’s been very difficult for anyone to do real deals with Iran, because we’re dealing with radical Shia clerics who are \u200cmaking theological decisions, not geopolitical ones.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump has said that he would be involved “indirectly” \u2060in high-stakes talks between Iran and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-302242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}