News: US and Iran Open High-Stakes Nuclear Talks in Geneva Amid Unprecedented Military Buildup and Global Protests
The United States and Iran have begun a pivotal second round of indirect nuclear negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday, February 17, with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner leading the American delegation and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi heading the Iranian team. The talks, mediated by Oman, are unfolding against the most intense backdrop of military posturing, economic pressure, and civil unrest that the two nations have faced since their last direct confrontation — the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025's Operation Midnight Hammer. The stakes could hardly be higher. Washington has assembled what President Donald Trump has described as an "armada" in the Middle East, with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group confirmed by satellite imagery off the coast of Oman, roughly 700 kilometers from Iranian shores, and the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world's largest warship — en route to the region. Tehran, meanwhile, has responded with its own show of force, launching live-fire naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz hours before talks began. Oil prices rose more than 1% on Tuesday as markets digested the geopolitical uncertainty, with Brent crude climbing ahead of what analysts describe as one of the most consequential diplomatic encounters in years. The negotiations arrive in the wake of a devastating Iranian government crackdown on nationwide protests that killed at least 7,000 people according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, and which prompted global demonstrations this past weekend — including a rally of over 250,000 people in Munich. The convergence of military threat, humanitarian crisis, and fragile diplomacy makes this week's Geneva talks a potential turning point in one of the world's most dangerous geopolitical disputes.