Iran and the United States are conducting indirect nuclear negotiations in Geneva on Thursday, as diplomacy faces uncertainty after Israel’s 12-day war on Iran in June and Iran’s subsequent crackdown on nationwide protests that began in late December, the Associated Press reported. In the negotiations’ background, U.S. pressure and regional fears are intensifying, with governments in the Middle East warning that a diplomatic collapse could raise the risk of a new regional war.
The talks are unfolding while President Donald Trump has continued to ratchet up pressure on Tehran, including by moving an aircraft carrier and other military assets toward the Persian Gulf. The Associated Press said a second aircraft carrier has also been positioned in the Mediterranean Sea. Trump has also suggested the U.S. could attack Iran in connection with the killing of demonstrators or if Iran carries out mass executions related to the protests.
Alongside the military posture, Trump has worked to put Iran’s nuclear program back at the center of U.S. efforts, according to the Associated Press. The article said the June war disrupted five earlier rounds of talks that had been held in Rome and Muscat, Oman, last year, and that two rounds since then have not yet produced a deal.
Iran, for its part, has sought to narrow the scope of the discussions. The Associated Press reported that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has insisted that talks focus “solely on the nuclear program” and has said Iran is “not seeking nuclear weapons. … and are ready for any kind of verification.” The reporting also described a key constraint for verification: the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been unable for months to inspect and verify Iran’s nuclear stockpile.
Oman has played a role in keeping diplomacy moving, having mediated previous talks between Iran’s representative and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. The Associated Press said the men met face to face after the indirect negotiations, which would be rare given decades of hostility between the countries. The reporting also described friction around enrichment, noting that Witkoff at one point suggested 3.67% enrichment could be something the sides could agree on—a level associated with the 2015 nuclear deal—while U.S. officials since have argued that Iran cannot enrich under any deal, a position Tehran has said it will not accept.
The nuclear dispute sits alongside two other flashpoints described by the Associated Press: the aftermath of Israel’s June war and the domestic unrest that followed. In the June conflict, which the reporting said included U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, Iran later acknowledged in November that the attacks led it to halt all uranium enrichment. However, the AP said IAEA inspectors have been unable to visit the bombed sites, leaving gaps in the watchdog’s assessment. Six months later, protesters began demonstrating over the collapse of the rial currency and the demonstrations expanded nationwide, prompting what the AP described as a bloody crackdown that killed thousands and resulted in tens of thousands of detentions.
The question the talks must resolve, as portrayed in the Associated Press report, is how Iran’s nuclear program should be handled and verified. The reporting said Iran enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%—the only country without a nuclear weapons program that enriches to that level—and that it has repeatedly said its program is peaceful. It also said that under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms, while the IAEA’s last reported stockpile was some 9,870 kilograms, with part enriched to 60%. With the IAEA unable to assess the program for months, the Associated Press said nonproliferation concerns have grown.
The Associated Press said U.S. intelligence agencies assess Iran has not yet begun a weapons program but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.” Israeli officials, according to the reporting, believe Iran is seeking a weapon and want Iran to scrap its nuclear program and halt its ballistic missile efforts and support for anti-Israel militant groups including Hezbollah and Hamas.
The drive to restart negotiations has also drawn from earlier U.S. outreach. The Associated Press reported that Trump began diplomacy by writing a letter last year to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to jump-start talks, dispatching the letter on March 5, 2025. It said the president acknowledged sending it the next day and quoted Trump as saying: “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing.’” The Associated Press said Khamenei warned Iran would respond to any attack with an attack of its own, especially as the theocracy he leads faces political pressure linked to the protests.