US to hold Geneva nuclear talks if Iran submits deal soon

jpost.com · Feb 22, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Jerusalem Post/Middle East/Iran NewsUS sets 48-hour deadline for Iran proposal ahead of new Geneva talk - AxiosUS negotiators will meet Iran in Geneva on Friday for a new round of nuclear talks, with significant gaps remaining over enrichment limits and Trump's "zero enrichment" stance.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi after a speech at the UN Conference on Disarmament at the sidelines of US-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva, February 17, 2026; illustrative.(photo credit: Valentin Flauraud / AFP via Getty Images)ByJAMES GENNFEBRUARY 22, 2026 16:45Updated: FEBRUARY 22, 2026 18:32US negotiators will hold another round of talks with Iran on Friday in Geneva if they "receive a detailed Iranian proposal for a nuclear deal in the next 48 hours," a senior US official told Axios on Sunday.Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that he will likely meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Geneva, noting that there is still "a good chance" of a diplomatic solution to Tehran's nuclear ambition during an interview on CBS News's Face the Nation on Sunday.In the last round of nuclear talks in Geneva last week, Witkoff and Jared Kushner told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that US President Donald Trump is maintaining a position of "zero enrichment" of uranium within Iran, but that the US is willing to consider an Iranian proposal that includes "token enrichment" if Iran can prove that it will block every pathway to achieving a nuclear weapon, according to Axios.This comes after Senator Lindsey Graham told the outlet on Saturday that several people around Trump have been advising the president not to strike Iran. Graham has been urging the president to ignore this advice, Axios reported."I understand concerns about major military operations in the Middle East, given past entanglements. However, the voices who counsel against getting entangled seem to ignore the consequences of letting evil go unchecked," Graham told the outlet.The previous round of talks was productive, but significant gaps remain, several sources told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani walks near an Iranian missile during an unveiling ceremony in Tehran, Iran, in this picture obtained on February 17, 2024. (credit: Iran's Defense Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)US Vice President JD Vance said Iran is not yet willing to acknowledge Trump's "redlines," particularly those regarding the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, in a Tuesday statement.“In some ways it went well, they agreed to meet afterwards, but in other ways it was very clear that the President has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through,” Vance told Fox News.Iran could be close to enriching uranium for bomb-making material, US envoy Steve Witkoff claimsThis comes after Witkoff told Fox News on Saturday that Iran could theoretically be about a week away from being able to enrich its existing uranium to a weaponized level, though the envoy left out that Iran currently has no access to its material, no machines to enrich it, and no weapons program to use it for any operational purpose."They're probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material. And that's really dangerous. So they can't have that," Witkoff said on Fox News's My View with host Lara Trump, clearly wanting to highlight the severity of the potential future nuclear issues should Iran rebuild all the other elements of its nuclear program, which were bombed in June 2025.In June 2025, Israel and the US destroyed Iran's entire fleet of around 20,000 nuclear centrifuge fleet, its entire multifaceted weaponization program, most of its three major nuclear sites, dozens of minor nuclear sites, killed most of its leading nuclear scientists, and caved in portions of its nuclear facilities, making it hard for the Islamic Republic to access its existing enriched uranium.Reuters, Yonah Jeremy Bob, Amichai Stein, Tobias Siegal, and Lara Sukster Mosheyof contributed to this report.