By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Iran hold indirect talks in Geneva on Tuesday aimed at resolving their long-running nuclear dispute, with little clear indication of compromise as Washington masses a battle force in the region.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will take part in the negotiations, which are being mediated by Oman, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters, alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
Yet the U.S. military is simultaneously
preparing for the possibility of weeks of operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters.
Iran itself began a military drill on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international waterway and oil export route from Gulf Arab states, who have been appealing for diplomacy to end the dispute.
IRAN-U.S. NUCLEAR TALKS UNDER SHADOW OF PROTESTS AND WAR
Tehran and Washington renewed negotiations on February 6 on their decades-long dispute.
Washington and its close ally Israel believe Iran aspires to build a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel's existence. Iran says its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, even though it has enriched uranium far beyond the purity needed for power generation, and close to what is required for a bomb.
Tehran is acutely aware that a previous attempt to revive talks was under way in June last year when Washington's ally Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, and was then joined by U.S. bombers that struck nuclear targets. Tehran has since said it has halted uranium enrichment activity.
Since then, Iran's Islamic rulers have been weakened by widespread street protests, put down at a cost of thousands of lives, against a cost-of-living crisis driven in part by international sanctions that have strangled Iran's oil income.
Unlike last time, the U.S. has now placed what Trump calls a massive naval armada in the region.
Washington has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues such as Iran's missile stockpile. Tehran says it is willing only to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme - in exchange for sanctions relief - and that it will not give up uranium enrichment completely or discuss its missile programme.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a news conference in Budapest that it was hard to do a deal with Iran, but the U.S. was willing to try.
Araqchi on Monday met Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Geneva to discuss cooperation with the IAEA and technical aspects of the impending talks with the U.S.
On Tuesday afternoon, Witkoff and Kushner will participate in three-way talks with Russia and Ukraine as Washington attempts to coax Ukraine and Russia into an agreement to end Moscow's four-year-old invasion of Ukraine, the source said.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Budapest, Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru, Steve Holland in Washington, Parisa Hafezi in Dubai and Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
