{"id":419,"date":"2026-02-26T19:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2026-02-26T19:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:15:47","slug":"iran-accuses-trump-of-big-lies-ahead-of-geneva-talks-in-face-of-major-us-military-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"Iran accuses Trump of \u2018big lies\u2019 ahead of Geneva talks in face of major US military deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0pressure tactics<\/span>\u00a0ahead of critical talks in Geneva over\u00a0Tehran\u2019s nuclear program<\/span>, alternating between calling his remarks \u201cbig lies\u201d and saying negotiations may yield an agreement through \u201chonorable diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks by two Iranian officials came a day before the talks and as America has assembled its\u00a0biggest deployment<\/span>\u00a0of aircraft and warships to the Middle East in decades. The buildup is part of Trump\u2019s efforts to get a deal to constrain Iran\u2019s nuclear program while the country\u00a0struggles at home<\/span>\u00a0with\u00a0growing dissent<\/span>\u00a0following\u00a0nationwide protests<\/span>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran if negotiations fail. Mideast nations fear an attack could spiral into a new regional war as the embers of the yearslong\u00a0Israel-Hamas war<\/span>\u00a0still smolder. Already, Iran has said all U.S. military bases in the Mideast would be considered legitimate targets, putting at risk tens of thousands of American service members.<\/p>\n

Satellite photos shot Tuesday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press appeared to show the American vessels that typically are docked\u00a0in Bahrain<\/span>, the home of the U.S. Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet, all out at sea. The 5th Fleet referred questions to the U.S. military\u2019s Central Command, which declined to comment. Before\u00a0Iran\u2019s attack on Qatar<\/span>\u00a0in June, the 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships at sea to protect against a potential attack.<\/p>\n

Trump touched on Iran and the nuclear negotiations in his\u00a0State of the Union speech<\/span>\u00a0late Tuesday in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they\u2019re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They\u2019re starting it all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Satellite photos analyzed earlier by the AP showed Iran\u00a0beginning to rebuild its missile-production sites<\/span>\u00a0and doing some\u00a0work at the three nuclear sites<\/span>\u00a0attacked by the U.S. in June. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday that Iran is \u201calways trying to rebuild elements\u201d of its nuclear program. He said that Tehran is not enriching uranium right now, \u201cbut they\u2019re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had a nuclear weapons program until 2003. Before the June attack, it had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity \u2014 a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.<\/p>\n

Responding to Trump, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei sought to compare him to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler\u2019s propaganda minister. He accused Trump and his administration of conducting a \u201cdisinformation & misinformation campaign\u201d against Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever they\u2019re alleging in regards to Iran\u2019s nuclear program, Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January\u2019s unrest is simply the repetition of \u2018big lies,\u2019\u201d Baghaei wrote on X<\/p>\n

Trump said in his speech that at least 32,000 people were killed in last month\u2019s protests, which is at the far end of estimates offered by activists for the death toll. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency has so far counted\u00a0more than 7,000 dead<\/span>\u00a0and believes the actual figure is far higher. Iran\u2019s government, which long has downplayed death tolls in other unrest, offered its only toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, said separately that the U.S. could either try diplomacy or face Iran\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you choose the table of diplomacy \u2014 a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected \u2014 we will also be at that table,\u201d Qalibaf said, according to the semiofficial Student News Network, a media outlet believed to be close to the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you decide to repeat past experiences through deception, lies, flawed analysis and false information, and launch an attack in the midst of negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste the firm blow of the Iranian nation and the country\u2019s defensive forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talks hang in balance<\/h2>\n

Iran and the U.S. are to meet Thursday for their third round of talks under the mediation of Oman, long an interlocutor between Tehran and the West. A flight carrying Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team arrived late Wednesday in Geneva, where they will meet American officials led by\u00a0special U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Rubio said the discussions will be largely focused on Iran\u2019s nuclear program and are important to gauge how serious the country is in reaching a deal to avoid potential U.S. military action. But he suggested a breakthrough was unlikely at this session, noting that the U.S. also has major concerns with Iran\u2019s conventional weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope progress can be made,\u201d Rubio told reporters during a trip to the Caribbean, saying diplomacy was Trump\u2019s preference. \u201cBut it\u2019s also important to remember that Iran refuses \u2014 refuses \u2014 to talk about the ballistic missiles to us or to anyone, and that\u2019s a big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the talks fail, uncertainty hangs over the timing of any possible attack.<\/p>\n

If the aim of potential military action is to pressure Iran to make concessions in nuclear negotiations, it\u2019s not clear whether limited strikes would work. If the goal is to remove Iran\u2019s leaders, that will likely commit the U.S. to a larger, longer military campaign. There has been no public sign of planning for what would come next, including the potential for chaos in Iran.<\/p>\n

The status of Iran\u2019s nuclear program is another mystery. Trump said last year that American strikes \u201cobliterated\u201d it. Now dismantling whatever remains of the program appears to be back on the administration\u2019s agenda. IAEA inspectors have not been allowed to inspect those sites and verify what remains.<\/p>\n

There is also uncertainty about what any military action could mean for the wider region. Tehran could retaliate against the American-allied nations of the Persian Gulf or Israel. Oil prices have risen in recent days in part due to those concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0pressure tactics\u00a0ahead of critical talks in Geneva over\u00a0Tehran\u2019s nuclear program, alternating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[141,111,142,28],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dubai","tag-iran","tag-u-s-president","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}