Trump accused of ‘big lies’ ahead of Geneva talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP):

Iran pushed back 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 to the Middle East in decades. The buildup is part of Trump’s efforts to get a deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear programme while the country 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 tens of thousands of American service members.

Satellite photos shot Tuesday by Planet Labs PBC and analysed by The Associated Press appeared to show the American vessels that typically are docked in Bahrain, the home of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, all out at sea. The 5th Fleet referred questions to the US military’s Central Command, which declined to comment. Before Iran’s attack on Qatar in June, the 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships at sea to protect against a potential attack.

Trump touched on Iran and the nuclear negotiations in his State of the Union speech late Tuesday in Washington.

“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.”

REBUILDING MISSILE-PRODUCTION SITES

Satellite photos analysed earlier by the AP 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 long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful. The West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had a nuclear weapons program 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 in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baghaei wrote on X.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, said separately that the US could either try diplomacy or face Iran’s wrath.

“If you choose the table of diplomacy – a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected – we will also be at that table,” Qalibaf said, according to the semi-official Student News Network, a media outlet believed to be close to the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

“But 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’s defensive forces.”