Iran's FM heads to Geneva for 2nd round of talks with U.S.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi headed to Geneva on Sunday for a second round of Iran-U.S. indirect talks, even as relevant parties laid out starkly different visions of what a deal should entail, exposing the fragile foundations of the renewed diplomatic push.

Araghchi is leading a "diplomatic and specialized" delegation to the talks on Tuesday. He is expected to meet Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, and Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, among other officials, according to a ministry statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the American team, according to media reports.

The meeting follows the first round in Oman's Muscat on Feb. 6 that both sides described as a "good start" but yielded no visible breakthrough.

In public statements ahead of the Geneva meeting, Iranian officials struck a tone of conditional openness mixed with defiance. Speaking to BBC on Sunday, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signaled Iran's willingness to compromise on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, but drew firm red lines.

He confirmed that Iran could discuss diluting its 60 percent-enriched uranium as the country's proof of flexibility, but flatly ruled out zero enrichment on Iranian soil.

According to Iranian media reports on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei reaffirmed that the country's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy is inherent and inalienable, and no form of pressure or political stance can undermine this right.

He said that Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Meanwhile, signals are similarly mixed from the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump prefers diplomacy and a negotiated settlement. "No one's ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we're going to try," Rubio said at a news conference in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

U.S. media reported on Sunday that Trump told Netanyahu as early as December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran's ballistic missile program if a deal cannot be reached.

U.S. military and intelligence officials have also discussed how U.S. could assist Israel in potential operations against Iran's missile infrastructure, including providing aerial refueling for Israeli aircraft and helping secure overflight permissions from related regional countries, said the report.

Netanyahu, for his part, has set a maximalist bar. Speaking at a public conference on Sunday, he insisted that any potential agreement with Iran must include the removal of nuclear material, a halt to uranium enrichment and restrictions on ballistic missiles.

Netanyahu also reiterated his skepticism "about any deal with Iran."

With U.S. warships massing in the region and both sides preparing for the possibility of failure, it is widely believed that the upcoming talks on Tuesday may test whether diplomacy can still offer a path forward, or merely serve as a prelude to deeper confrontation.

Iran's FM heads to Geneva for 2nd round of talks with U.S.

Iran's FM heads to Geneva for 2nd round of talks with U.S.

The ripple effects of tensions in the Middle East have now spread to the major eastern Chinese trading hub of Yiwu, a city famously known as "the world's supermarket," as companies and traders try to work around the disruption and rely on strong logistics networks across the region to keep business moving.

The Yiwu International Trade Market has become an important center for foreign trade, housing nearly 80,000 booths offering over two million types of commodities. However, the recent situation brought by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the disruption it has caused to both shipping transport and air cargo is forcing some traders to take steps to mitigate the impact.

Zhang Shidan, a plastic household goods trader in Yiwu, said her company has been left with no choice but to raise product prices as transportation and insurance costs have surged due to escalating tensions in the Middle East.

"We will adjust prices after the stocks of most products run out. The prices are expected to rise by 10 percent," Zhang said.

The travel turmoil brought by the conflict has also created a headache for customers from the region who are trying to reach Yiwu themselves.

"We flew from Lebanon to Egypt, from Egypt to Dubai, from Dubai to Hangzhou. It's a long time. Because in [the main] Lebanon airport, only one company can fly -- a Middle East company -- so its expensive," said Heysam Yassine, a Lebanese buyer.

While making the trip from the Middle East to Yiwu has become more difficult, logistics companies with well-established supply chain networks across the region are helping to cushion the impact on trade and working to distribute goods as best as they can.

"We have 28 warehouses across 12 countries in the Middle East, so we have a relatively complete layout in the region," said Chen Fangfang, general manager of Safe Way Express Cargo, a logistics and cargo shipping firm.

Last year, the total value of Yiwu's exports reached over 100 billion U.S. dollars, with more than 14 billion U.S. dollars going to Middle Eastern markets.

Traders in Yiwu look to work around Middle East disruption, rely on strong logistics networks