Europe, Iran to hold talks as Trump sets two-week deadline for U.S. strikes decision

Top U.K., France and Germany diplomats are pushing for eleventh-hour diplomacy with Iran in Geneva on Friday, as Washington weighs the possibility of joining Israel’s military campaign against Tehran over the next two weeks.

Iran and Israel have been trading fire for the past week, in the latest climax of tensions that have been simmering since the Tehran-backed Hamas’ terrorist attack against the Jewish state in October 2023. Israel has since been fighting a war on multiple battles against the Palestinian militant group and other Iranian proxies, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi — which Tehran says are acting independently.

The conflict has risked further escalation since the start of the week, amid signals that the U.S. — historically a close ally and weapons supplier of Israel — could intervene militarily against Tehran.

 “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” U.S. President Donald Trump said, according to a statement read out on Thursday by White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.

Following a Thursday meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy said the three “discussed how a deal could avoid a deepening conflict” and that “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.”

“There is no room for negotiations with the U.S. until Israeli aggression stops,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is expected to attend talks in Geneva, was quoted as saying on Iranian state TV on Friday, according to Reuters.

Trump’s aversion to Iran’s nuclear program has been a central point of his statesmanship across both mandates. The White House leader pulled the U.S. out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) during his first presidency, tightening the noose on Iran’s coffers through a string of stringent financial and oil-linked sanctions.

Self-proclaimed ‘peacemaker’ Trump has so far fruitlessly pursued a second nuclear program deal since the start of his second term, initially expressing a preference for a diplomatic breakthrough — the likes of which European officials are now hoping to strike.

“In the United States, [there are] many political officials who are convinced that we must not once more make the errors of the past. What we saw in Libya, what we saw in Afghanistan, what we saw in Iraq, we do not want to see reproduced,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in a TV interview with French media, according to a CNBC translation.

Notably, the U.K., France and Germany — alongside Iran’s allies Russia and China — were previously involved in the JCPOA with Washington and Tehran.

Markets have been rattled by the possibility of the conflict destabilizing the wider oil-rich Middle East and potentially drawing in the world’s largest economy, spurring investors on a flight to safe-haven assets and broader focus on defense companies and initiatives.