Iran and United States to continue negotiations in Geneva
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear programme. Tehran has said it would respond with an attack of its own
Iran will engage in a second round of negotiations on its nuclear programme with the United States in Geneva, according to state media.
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Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation left for the Swiss city after the first round of indirect talks in Oman last week.
Oman will mediate the talks in Geneva, the IRNA state-run news agency reported.
Similar talks last year broke down after Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran, which included the US bombing Iranian nuclear sites.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear programme. Tehran has said it would respond with an attack of its own.
Mr Trump has also threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests.
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Gulf Arab countries have warned that any attack could spiral into another regional conflict.
The Trump administration has maintained that Iran can have no uranium enrichment under any circumstances, which Tehran says it will not agree to.
Iran continues to insist that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but officials have increasingly threatened to pursue a nuclear weapon.
Before the war in June, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, just a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
Mr Araghchi is also expected to meet his Swiss and Omani counterparts as well as the director general of the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Earlier on Sunday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington remains interested in a diplomatic solution to ending its differences with Tehran, and that Mr Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were travelling for the new round of talks.
Mr Trump said on Friday that the USS Gerald R Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean to the Middle East to join other military assets the US has built up in the region. He also said a change in power in Tehran "would be the best thing that could happen".
Mr Rubio said recent military deployments in the Middle East were a protective measure aimed at shoring up the defences of US facilities and interests.
Iran has threatened to attack US bases in the region if Washington decides to strike. Tehran in June attacked the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, though no American or Qatari personnel were harmed.
"No one's been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we're going to try," said Mr Rubio at a news conference after meeting Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava.
"We are focused on negotiations."
Mr Trump has recently suggested that his priority is for Iran to scale back its nuclear programme, while Tehran has said it wants talks to solely focus on the nuclear programme.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier this week met Mr Trump in Washington, has been pressing for a deal that would neutralise Iran's ballistic missile programme and end its funding for proxy groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli prime minister said in a speech on Sunday that any deal between the US and Iran must make sure that "all enriched material has to leave Iran".
It remains unclear how much influence Mr Netanyahu will have over Mr Trump's policy on Iran.
Mr Trump initially threatened to take military action over Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month, but then shifted to a pressure campaign in recent weeks to try to get Tehran to make a deal over its nuclear programme.