Iran pushes back against Trump’s pressure tactics ahead of Geneva talks

Dubai: Iran pushed back on Wednesday against US President Donald Trump’s pressure tactics ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran’s nuclear programme, alternating between calling his remarks “big lies” and saying negotiations may yield an agreement through “honourable diplomacy.”

The remarks by two Iranian officials ahead of Thursday’s talks come as America has assembled its biggest deployment of aircraft and warships into the Middle East in decades, part of Trump’s efforts to get a deal while Iran struggles at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests last month.

If the negotiations fail, Trump repeatedly has threatened to attack Iran — something Mideast nations fear could spiral into a new regional war as the embers of the years-long Israel-Hamas war still smoulder. Already, Iran has said all US military bases in the Mideast would be considered legitimate targets, putting at risk the tens of thousands of American service members in the region. US warships typically docked in Bahrain appear to have been sent to sea, satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press show.

Trump on Tuesday night in the US gave his annual State of the Union speech, touching on Iran and the nuclear negotiations.

“They’ve 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,” Trump said. “They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons programme, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over.”

Satellite photos showed Iran beginning to rebuild its missile production sites and doing some work at the three nuclear sites attacked by the US in June. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful. The West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had a nuclear weapons programme until 2003. It had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity before the June attack — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

Responding to Trump, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei sought to compare him to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister. He accused Trump and his administration of conducting a “disinformation & misinformation campaign” against Iran. “Whatever they’re alleging regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of big lies,” Baghaei wrote on X.

Trump said in his speech that at least 32,000 people were killed in the protests, which is at the far end of estimates offered by activists for the death toll. The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency has so far counted more than 7,000 dead and believes the death toll is far higher. Iran’s government, which has long downplayed death tolls in other unrest, offered its only toll on January 21, saying 3,117 were killed. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, separately said the US could either try diplomacy or face Iran’s wrath.