President Donald Trump said on Feb. 16 that he would be indirectly involved in the second round of nuclear talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Geneva on Feb. 17.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said the talks are “very important” and that he expects Iran to come into an agreement that would restrain its nuclear weapons program.
“We’ll see what can happen, but typically Iran is a very tough negotiator,” the president said. “I think they want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal.”
“I would say they’re bad negotiators because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B-2s in to knock out their nuclear potential,” he said, referring to the U.S. stealth bombers used in the June attack.
“We had to send the B-2s. So I hope they’re going to be more reasonable.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced on X that he arrived in Geneva with a team of nuclear experts ahead of the U.S. talks.
Araghchi said he will meet with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who is mediating the U.S.-Iran talks, ahead of scheduled discussions with U.S. officials in Geneva.
The previous round of U.S.-Iran talks in Oman on Feb. 6 concluded without an agreement.
Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s missile stockpile. Tehran says it is only willing to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and won’t accept zero uranium enrichment. Iran also says its missile capabilities are off the table.
