Iran announced it had agreed with the U.S. in talks in Geneva on “guiding principles” for a deal to avoid conflict—but Vice President JD Vance said Tehran had not yet acknowledged all of Washington’s red lines.
Washington and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian clearly disagree about how far along the sides were as a day of negotiations drew to a close on Tuesday, February 18th.
The Omani-mediated talks were aimed at averting the possibility of U.S. military intervention to curb Iran’s nuclear program, weeks after the cleric-run state killed thousands of people while crushing mass demonstrations.
Iran’s supreme leader had warned earlier in the day that the country had the ability to sink a U.S. warship recently deployed to the region, after President Donald Trump alluded to “consequences” should the two sides fail to strike a deal.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television after Tuesday’s talks:
Ultimately, we were able to reach a broad agreement on a set of guiding principles, based on which we will move forward and begin working on the text of a potential agreement.
