Last-ditch effort in Geneva to avert war between US, Iran wraps with ‘significant progress,’ Omani official says

U.S. and Iranian officials gathered for talks in Geneva on Thursday against the backdrop of the largest American military buildup in the Middle East since the Iraq War. The negotiations were widely seen as a last-ditch effort to prevent the standoff between Washington and Tehran from spiraling into war but produced no dramatic breakthrough.

In talks mediated by Oman, the U.S. delegation — led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi. It marked the third round of deliberations between the two nations this month.

Even though no deal was clinched, there was a suggestion of important advances having been made. Badr al-Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister, said in a statement following the meeting that “significant progress” was made and talks “will resume soon after consultations in the respective capitals.” He noted that discussions on a “technical level” will take place next week in Vienna.

Neither the White House nor the leadership of Iran offered any immediate comment.

Trump, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, said Iran could avert conflict by articulating what he called the “secret words: ‘We do not want nuclear weapons ever.’” He insisted that his preference was to pursue diplomacy with Tehran, but has previously warned that “bad things” would happen if a new nuclear deal is not achieved.

Analysts estimate that Trump’s buildup of forces in the region now represents nearly half of all deployable U.S. airpower — a concentration of military might not seen since the days of the 1991 Gulf War or the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The armada consists of two aircraft carrier strike groups, as well as dozens of bombers and fighter jets.

Yet even on the apparent cusp of war, Iran has so far refused to concede to U.S. demands. “Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people,” the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister wrote in a post on X.

Iran has vowed deadly retaliation if the U.S. attacks militarily, and its proxy groups as well as the Taliban have pledged to join the fight in its defense. Israel would be an obvious likely target, but U.S. installations across the region would also be under threat.

Key Gulf allies, who are concerned that a confrontation could spiral into a wider war, have said the U.S. will not be allowed to use their airspace for military action against Iran.

Among American demands, according to officials, is an insistence that the Islamic Republic should destroy all three of its nuclear sites. This poses a seeming contradiction with Trump’s previous and emphatic declaration that those facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated” by U.S. B-2 bombers during Operation Midnight Hammer last June.

The president made that statement on the day of the operation, asserting that it would take years for Tehran to rebuild its program. Witkoff, however, said in an interview with Fox News last weekend that the Iranians are now “a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also argued that Iran’s reluctance to discuss its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles remains a significant gap at the negotiating table.

“The negotiations [on Thursday] will be largely focused on the nuclear program, and we hope progress can be made,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday. “But it’s also important to remember that Iran refuses — refuses — to talk about ballistic missiles to us or to anyone, and that’s a big problem.”