Live-fire exercises shadow US-Iran nuclear negotiations

The US and Iran are holding their second round of talks about Iran’s nuclear programme on Tuesday in Geneva as Iran said it will close the Strait of Hormuz for several hours for live fire military exercises and the United States ramps up its military forces in the region.

As the talks began, Iranian media announced that Iran had fired live missiles toward the Strait of Hormuz, and said it will close the Strait for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”

This is the first time that Iran has closed parts of the Strait, an essential international waterway, since the US began threatening Iran with military action. Iran on Monday announced a maritime military exercise in waterways that are crucial international trade routes through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. Iran previously held a live fire drill in the Strait of Hormuz several weeks ago but did not announce closures.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian state TV reported on Tuesday that the negotiations with the US will be indirect and will focus only on Iran’s nuclear program, not domestic policies including its bloody crackdown on protesters last month.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump has also threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests.

The first round of talks Feb. 6 were held in Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, and were indirect. Similarly to the last round of talks, the Iranians appeared to be meeting with Omani mediators separately from the Americans on Tuesday.

Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were traveling for the new round of talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the talks for Iran, met with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency Monday in Geneva.

“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote on X. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”

Talking to reporters Monday night aboard Air Force One on his way to Washington, US President Donald Trump said he planned to be involved in the talks, at least indirectly. “I think they want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” he said.

The US is also hosting talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbor.

Iran announced that the Revolutionary Guard started a drill early Monday morning in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, which are crucial international shipping routes. It was the second time in recent weeks that Iran has held a live fire drill in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stepped up his warnings to the US over its buildup of military forces in the Middle East.

“Of course a warship is a dangerous apparatus, but more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that can sink the warship into the depths of the sea,” Khamanei said, Iranian state TV reported.

He also warned the US that “forcing the result of talks in advance is a wrong and foolish job.”

Last week, Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the US has built up in the region.

The Ford, whose new deployment was first reported by The New York Times, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for over two weeks. US forces already have shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Associated Press