According to Albusaidi, Iran and the US had been on the “verge of a real deal” in nuclear negotiations held in Geneva in February, describing the talks as “substantive”. Photograph: APAs revealed by the Guardian this week, a similar assessment had been made by the UK’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, who attended the final stages of the nuclear talks. The US negotiating team consisted of Trump’s special envoy, the real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. A final phase of negotiations had been planned for the following week in Vienna, but 48 hours after the talks finished, the US and Israel began their strikes on Iran. “The American administration’s greatest miscalculation, of course, was allowing itself to be drawn into this war in the first place,” he wrote.

Source: The Guardian March 20, 2026 03:50 UTC