- A cyclist rides past an anti-US billboard installed on a building along a street in Tehran on Feb. 26, 2026.
Iran said on Feb. 27 that in order to reach a deal, the United States will have to drop its "excessive demands,” tempering the optimism expressed after talks seen as a last-ditch bid to avert war.
The Oman-mediated talks follow repeated threats from President Donald Trump to strike Iran, and with the United States conducting its biggest military build-up in the region in decades.
Without specifying what demands he was referring to, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Feb. 27 told his Egyptian counterpart that "success in this path requires seriousness and realism from the other side and avoidance of any miscalculation and excessive demands.”
Following the talks in Geneva on Feb. 26, Araghchi told state TV that the negotiations "made very good progress and entered into the elements of an agreement very seriously, both in the nuclear field and in the sanctions field.”
He said the next round would take place in "perhaps less than a week,” with technical talks at the U.N.'s nuclear agency to begin in Vienna on March 2.
Araghchi, in a post on X, called the latest round of talks "the most intense so far.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Israel on Feb. 27 announced the State Department has authorized non-emergency personnel and the family members of those stationed in Israel to leave the country due to “safety risks.”
A powerful Iran-backed Iraqi armed group also told its fighters to prepare for the scenario of a long war in neighboring Iran should the United States launch strikes.
Kataeb Hezbollah warned the U.S. on Feb. 26 of "immense losses" were it to start a war in the region, while a commander in an armed faction told AFP his group was "highly likely" to intervene in case of strikes.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 19 gave Iran 15 days to reach a deal, and while Iran has insisted the discussions focus solely on its nuclear program, the U.S. wants Tehran's missile program and its support for militant groups curtailed.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 26 that Trump's negotiating team would demand that Iran dismantle its three main nuclear sites and hand over all its remaining enriched uranium to the United States.
Trump said in his State of the Union address that Iran had "already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
He also accused Iran of "pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions,” though Tehran has always insisted its program is for civilian purposes.
The accusations were delivered in the same forum in which then-president George W. Bush laid out the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
