{"id":489993,"date":"2026-02-25T17:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489993\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:25:08","slug":"iran-pushes-back-against-trump-ahead-of-geneva-nuclear-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489993\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran pushes back against Trump ahead of Geneva nuclear talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s pressure tactics<\/a> ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a>, alternating between calling his remarks \u201cbig lies\u201d and saying negotiations may yield an agreement through \u201chonorable diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks by two Iranian officials ahead of Thursday\u2019s talks come as America has assembled its biggest deployment<\/a> of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades. The buildup is part of Trump\u2019s efforts to get a deal to constrain Iran\u2019s nuclear program while the country struggles at home with growing dissent<\/a> following nationwide protests<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

If the negotiations fail, Trump repeatedly has threatened to attack Iran \u2014 something Mideast nations fear could spiral into a new regional war as the embers of the yearslong Israel-Hamas war<\/a> still smolder. Already, Iran has said all U.S. military bases in the Mideast would be considered legitimate targets, putting at risk tens of thousands of American service members.<\/p>\n

Satellite photos shot Tuesday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press appeared to show the American vessels that typically are docked in Bahrain<\/a>, the home of the U.S. Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet, all out at sea. The 5th Fleet referred questions to the U.S. military\u2019s Central Command, which declined to comment. Before Iran\u2019s attack on Qatar<\/a> in June, the 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships at sea to protect against a potential attack.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Iran pushes back against Trump ahead of Geneva talks in face of major US military deployment\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on Iran dismissing Trump\u2019s remarks during his State of the Union. <\/p>\n

Iran responds to State of the Union speech<\/p>\n

Trump touched on Iran and the nuclear negotiations in his State of the Union speech<\/a> late Tuesday in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they\u2019re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They\u2019re starting it all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Satellite photos analyzed earlier by the AP showed Iran beginning to rebuild its missile-production sites<\/a> and doing some work at the three nuclear sites<\/a> attacked by the U.S. in June. Iran long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful. The West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had a nuclear weapons program until 2003. It had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity before the June attack \u2014 a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.<\/p>\n

Responding to Trump, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei sought to compare him to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler\u2019s propaganda minister. He accused Trump and his administration of conducting a \u201cdisinformation & misinformation campaign\u201d against Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever they\u2019re alleging in regards to Iran\u2019s nuclear program, Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January\u2019s unrest is simply the repetition of \u2018big lies,\u2019\u201d Baghaei wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Trump said in his speech that at least 32,000 people were killed in last month\u2019s protests, which is at the far end of estimates offered by activists for the death toll. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency has so far counted more than 7,000 dead<\/a> and believes the actual figure is far higher. Iran\u2019s government, which long has downplayed death tolls in other unrest, offered its only toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, said separately that the U.S. could either try diplomacy or face Iran\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you choose the table of diplomacy \u2014 a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected \u2014 we will also be at that table,\u201d Qalibaf said, according to the semiofficial Student News Network, a media outlet believed to be close to the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you decide to repeat past experiences through deception, lies, flawed analysis and false information, and launch an attack in the midst of negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste the firm blow of the Iranian nation and the country\u2019s defensive forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talks hang in balance<\/p>\n

Iran and the U.S. are due to meet Thursday for their third round of talks under the mediation of Oman, long an interlocutor between Tehran and the West. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team left Tehran on Wednesday afternoon for Geneva, where they will meet American officials led by special U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the talks fail, uncertainty hangs over the timing of any possible attack, as well as its mission and goals.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has not made clear the aims of possible military action. If the goal is to pressure Iran to make concessions in nuclear negotiations, it\u2019s not clear whether limited strikes will work. If the goal is to remove Iran\u2019s leaders, that will likely commit the U.S. to a larger, longer military campaign. There has been no public sign of planning for what would come next, including the potential for chaos in Iran.<\/p>\n

The status of Iran\u2019s nuclear program is another mystery. Trump earlier said American strikes \u201cobliterated\u201d it. Now dismantling whatever remains of the program appears to be back on the administration\u2019s agenda. IAEA inspectors have not been allowed to inspect those sites and verify what remains.<\/p>\n

There is also uncertainty about what any military action could mean for the wider region. Tehran could retaliate against the American-allied nations of the Persian Gulf or Israel. Oil prices have risen in recent days in part due to those concerns.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s pressure tactics ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7589,6740,28967,23,1927,1930,12,194694,793,787,801,1570,10817,224855,1576,49708,224856,3,98700,111,3775,17569,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,964,800,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-489993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-abbas-araghchi","10":"tag-adolf-hitler","11":"tag-america","12":"tag-ap-top-news","13":"tag-diplomacy","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-esmail-baghaei","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-government-programs","18":"tag-iran","19":"tag-iran-government","20":"tag-israel-hamas-war","21":"tag-joseph-goebbels","22":"tag-military-and-defense","23":"tag-misinformation","24":"tag-mohammad-bagher-qalibaf","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-political-and-civil-unrest","27":"tag-politics","28":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","29":"tag-steve-witkoff","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-united-states-government","32":"tag-united-states-of-america","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-usa","37":"tag-war-and-unrest","38":"tag-washington-news","39":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}