Europeans press Iran on nuclear curbs but do not clinch deal in Geneva talks

GENEVA — Key European foreign ministers pressed their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday and urged Tehran to curb its nuclear program before President Donald Trump decides the United States should bomb Iranian nuclear sites — but the talks ended without an immediate agreement.

Israel opened a military operation, including airstrikes, last week, vowing to cripple Iran’s nuclear facilities, and Trump is threatening to order a U.S. bombing campaign as his standoff with Tehran deepens over whether Iran should be allowed to enrich any uranium at all, even for civilian purposes.

European leaders have been thrown off balance by Trump, who denied U.S. involvement in Israel’s attack only to warn days later that he may join the Israeli campaign, which has spiraled into a deadly tit-for-tat with mounting civilian casualties and a risk of inflaming the region. The attacks continued on Friday even as the diplomats sat down for more than three hours of talks at a luxury hotel in Geneva.

The Europeans hoped their meeting on Friday would help find an off-ramp from the conflict before Trump intervenes militarily, potentially risking a wider, unpredictable war.

Trump had promised to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program and lambasted the era of U.S. interventions in the Middle East, but he has since demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and on Thursday said he now would decide within two weeks whether to join the conflict.

Despite the absence of a quick agreement, Friday’s meeting in Geneva — involving France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, which all had a central role in negotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement along with Russia, China and the United States — could pave the way for a more prominent mediation role for European officials who have been sidelined under Trump.

Officials briefed on the discussions said all sides expressed “readiness” to continue talking but that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas reiterated Tehran’s view that a ceasefire must precede any negotiations.

America’s traditional European partners are deeply wary of getting drawn in to a widening conflict and have been working the phones in a bid to contain the rhetoric and carve out a diplomatic path.

European officials cast the latest diplomacy as an 11th-hour scramble to influence the crisis: to extract greater concessions from Iran, whose position they believe has now been weakened, and to get Trump to back away from his threats of a bombing campaign and suggestions of regime change.

The Europeans acknowledged that it was a tall order on both fronts. It is far from clear that Trump will heed — or is even listening to — their calls for restraint. And Iran may not be willing to accept any ultimatum, officials concede.

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot (left) and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (second from left) at a working lunch in the German consulate in Geneva on Friday.

At about midday Friday, the Europeans — France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas — gathered at the German consulate in Geneva where they conferred around a table on an outdoor terrace.

They met with Araghchi later Friday afternoon.

Trump’s wavering and his two-week deadline has given the European bid for diplomacy a small opening, with White House officials watching the Geneva talks.

The meeting was coordinated with Washington, four officials familiar with the planning said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

“A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington before landing in Geneva.

In a TV interview Thursday, Araghchi said Tehran could not negotiate “with America as a partner in this crime.”

“We have clearly said that there is no room for dialogue until the aggression stops,” Araghchi said. “If others request to talk with us, we have no problem.”

However, Trump and other U.S. officials have said that the Iranians have asked for negotiations with the United States.

The Europeans, who share Washington’s insistence that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon, are expected to try to press Tehran to give guarantees on restricting its nuclear activities, the officials said. Iran previously pledged never to acquire nuclear weapons under the 2015 deal that Trump abandoned in 2018.

One official said the talks would broach the U.S. demand of zero enrichment of uranium by Iran. Tehran has said it is open to negotiating over its nuclear activities but rejects giving up all uranium enrichment, maintaining that it has the right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian use.

The official said the meeting was as an effort to avert U.S. strikes that could escalate the conflict, and to gauge whether the Iranians’ stance may be shifting under the pressure of Israeli attacks.

A second official said the Europeans will seek to broker a “take it or leave it deal” with Iran, in exchange for “regime survival.” Previous talks contemplated allowing Iran to continue a limited amount of uranium enrichment for civilian energy purposes, but the requirement now would be for “zero enrichment,” the official said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has said the Europeans’ conditions for negotiations include the prospect of “a substantial and durable rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, of its ballistic missile program and its regional destabilization activities.” Barrot said Thursday that Iranian authorities have expressed a clear “will to resume talks, including with the Americans on condition that a ceasefire can be reached.”

France, Germany, Britain and the European Union were central to negotiations that resulted in the landmark 2015 deal to contain Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief under the Obama administration. After Trump abandoned the deal and reimposed U.S. sanctions, Iran gradually increased the quality and quantity of its enriched-uranium production.

The Europeans would be instrumental to enforcing a new deal, including at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog.

The Trump administration mostly shut out the Europeans when he came into office again this year and instead kick-started unilateral negotiations with Iran, which included promises of peace until the Israeli strikes began last week.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walk to the family photo during the Group of Seven (G-7) Summit at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 17, 2025.

French President Emmanuel Macron said at a Group of Seven meeting early this week that Trump had indicated he would seek discussions to stop the hostilities. Soon after leaving the G-7, Trump denied that he was working on a “ceasefire” and warned Iranians to “immediately evacuate Tehran” — the nation’s capital with 10 million residents — putting the world on edge.

Kallas, the E.U. foreign policy chief, has warned that deeper U.S. involvement in the conflict would “definitely drag the region into a broader conflict, and this is in nobody’s interest.” Tehran has warned it would retaliate against a U.S. attack by hitting American bases in the region.

Kallas told reporters this week that “the European Union can play and will play its part in reaching a diplomatic solution,” noting that the bloc was in contact with Iranian and Israeli counterparts. “I will spare no efforts in this respect.”

The European calls for de-escalation have done little to move Israeli officials, who have framed the conflict as a chance to topple Iran’s leadership. Israel launched its strikes last week despite Trump’s stated ambitions for diplomacy, derailing U.S. negotiations and vowing to end Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon. Israel is widely known to possesses nuclear weapons but has never publicly acknowledged such an arsenal.

Though the Europeans all urge de-escalation and agree on restricting Iran’s nuclear program, they are not speaking with a single voice. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week praised the Israeli attacks and described them as “the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.” Macron, meanwhile, warned against “regime change because nobody can say what would come after that” and asked whether anyone had learned from the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The conflict has also raised questions about an E.U. review of trade ties with Israel over its devastating war in Gaza. European officials recently had toughened their criticism of Israel. But some European Union countries, now keen to see Iran’s capabilities targeted, appear less inclined to consider punitive action against Israel, which had been expected to be debated by the 27-nation bloc in the next few weeks.

Israeli fighter jets continued the blitz on Iran overnight Thursday and throughout Friday, attacking sites linked to Iran’s missile systems and dozens of targets in Tehran, including a weapons research center, the Israeli military said Friday. Israel’s Army Radio reported that Israel assassinated an Iranian nuclear scientist, bringing the total number of Iranian scientists Israel claims to have killed since it launched the conflict last week to at least 11.

During an Iranian barrage Friday, some missiles broke through Israel’s vaunted air defenses and hit near government buildings by Haifa’s port, injuring about 31 people, a hospital said.

Iranian strikes hit sites in central and southern Israel, including a building bearing the logo of a military cyberdefense training center in Beersheba.

The intensifying strikes and threats have also trigerred a diplomatic scramble in the Middle East, where Iran and Israel’s neighbors are rattled by the prospect of an widening war.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met with Barrot in Paris on Thursday and described the European talks with Iran as important for “giving diplomacy a chance to succeed” and “protecting the region.” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff for the second time in a week, and separately with Araghchi, urging them to “utilize the available diplomatic channels” to halt the hostilities, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Parker reported from Cairo. Natalie Allison and Nilo Tabrizy in Washington, Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Victoria Bisset in London and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.