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Europe Today: US-Iran nuclear talks resume in Geneva
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Tune in to Euronews' new flagship morning programme at 8 am Brussels time. In just 20 minutes, we bring you up to speed on the biggest news of the day.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/02/26/europe-today-us-iran-nuclear-talks-resume-in-geneva
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:14Good morning, it is Thursday the 26th of February. I'm Niamh MacMahon and this is Europe Today,
00:21your daily dose of European news and analysis of European euronews.
00:26Coming up, all eyes on Geneva, where critical nuclear talks between Iran and the US are set
00:32to resume. Tehran says an agreement is within reach, but only if Washington respects key
00:38preconditions. However, the US president's position remains unclear. Donald Trump has
00:43repeatedly threatened to attack Iran if negotiations fail and Washington has overseen a significant
00:49military buildup in the Middle East in an effort to pressure Tehran into a nuclear deal amid rising
00:54domestic unrest in the Iranian capital. Let's start by taking a listen to President Donald
00:58Trump on his expectations for the talks. We are in negotiations with them. They want to
01:04make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words. We will never have a nuclear weapon.
01:11My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain,
01:17I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror to have a nuclear weapon.
01:21And for more on the talks, let's cross over to Euronews Leon and bring in the head of Euronews
01:27Persia desk, that's Babak Kamiar, who's monitoring those meetings for us today.
01:31Good morning. Just tell us, what is at stake here? What should we expect?
01:36Good morning, Maeve. Two important things from the Trump's address. The first thing is that the
01:42diplomacy is the number one, and the second, Iran never will obtain the nuclear bomb.
01:48But the question is that the Iran missile program still is the most complex issue. As the Secretary
01:55Rubio mentioned, Iran refuses to talk about his capacity of the ballistic missiles. And even there
02:05are some evidences that Iran, the Republic Islamic, has been trying over the past months to develop
02:13its capacity for the intercontinental ballistic missiles. And even although already they have
02:21the capacity to target some European countries, that's a big problem.
02:27And Babak, of course, what's making everyone nervous, the question, what happens if they do not reach
02:32a deal?
02:33Yeah, this is the very complex situation right now. And there are many, many evidences, such
02:43as the military deployment, that shows that any military confrontation is possible. And the
02:54question is, what objective Trump followed by this operation? Is this just a warning message? Is he trying
03:04to, I mean, push the Iranian back to the negotiation tables? Is he trying to just targeting some leaders
03:11and eliminated the some, some, some authorities, or even he's thinking about the regime change,
03:19regime change in Iran? So it's, and the question, and the most important thing is that how Iran will
03:26retaliate and respond to any, any, any military, even the very limited operation. Iran very openly
03:36stated from the back channels that even very openly that it's trying to, to defend itself very hard,
03:47harshly, and to respond, to, to, to, to target the military, U.S. military bases in the region,
03:56but also all the allies in the Persian Gulf, including the, the Arab countries.
04:01Okay. Babak, come here.
04:03So it could be, the conflict go to the, to the regional conflict.
04:06Okay, Babak, thank you so much for that live update this morning there from Euronews.
04:10Leon, we will, of course, keep a very close eye on those talks here at Euronews.
04:15But also in Geneva today, American negotiators, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will also be
04:20sitting down with a Ukrainian delegation to continue the peace talks that were left in limbo
04:25recently. The talks come as the war enters its fifth year and appears to have no end in sight.
04:31For more on this, we're joined here in our studio by our very own Sasha Vakilina,
04:35our Ukraine correspondent. Good morning, Sasha. What should we watch out for today?
04:39We should watch out for the bilateral meeting between Ukrainian delegation and the U.S.
04:43delegation. Now, the Russians are not represented at the table in Geneva. And this is crucial,
04:48of course, when it comes to the expectations, right? Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had
04:54a phone call yesterday. Reportedly, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would want to see an end
04:59to Russia's war against Ukraine within one year. Donald Trump reportedly said that he would want
05:05to see it within one month, Maeve. Now, also during this conversation, the timeline was discussed.
05:12Volodymyr Zelenskyy said we expect this meeting today in Geneva to create an opportunity to move
05:17talks to the leaders' level. President Trump supports this sequence of steps. Now, but Moscow
05:23does not seem to be supporting that. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he still does not
05:29see a point of Vladimir Putin participating in any sort of a meeting with Zelenskyy. And right before
05:35this meeting in Geneva, hours before the negotiations, Russia attacked Ukraine with drones and ballistic
05:41missiles, pointing Kharkiv, Kyiv and Zaporizhia. And meanwhile, Sasha, yesterday we reported, of course,
05:47on that spot between Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia on the Drozva pipeline. What is the latest on that?
05:54Hungarian leader announced the reinforced security protection around the critical energy
06:01infrastructure across Hungary. Now, we heard that from Viktor Orbán yesterday, when he also announced
06:07a drone ban in one of the regions bordering Ukraine, Maeve. Viktor Orbán said we will deploy soldiers and
06:14the necessary equipment to repel attacks to key energy facilities. Now, Hungary has not experienced those
06:20attacks. In fact, Hungary, unlike other Ukraine neighbour states, has not experienced drone incursions
06:27ever since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But this statement and these
06:32new measures are indeed coming amid this Druzhba spat and amid the European Union asking Ukraine to
06:38accelerate their repairman work over the pipeline infrastructure, which was hit by Russian attack
06:44back in end of January. Okay, Sasha, Vakilina, thank you so much for all those updates. And you can read
06:49more about the story and, of course, the outcome of those emergency talks in Brussels on
06:53euronews.com. But now, coming up, we'll be joined by Bernd Lange, a German politician and long-serving
07:00member of the European Parliament from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the CDP. Bernd Lange is
07:06the chair of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade. So, the man of the moment,
07:10if you like, here on Brussels with trade being one of the biggest subjects in town. So, good morning,
07:15Mr. Lange. Thank you so much for joining us here on Europe Today. Good morning. It's a pleasure.
07:18Yeah. So, look, what a week it's been for the EU-US trade deal. Has it been cursed since the
07:23start?
07:25Yeah, it's more or less the same. Each weekend, we have to see new developments in the United States.
07:31So, contrary to our goal to reach stability and predictability with the deal of Scotland,
07:38totally the opposite. And we have to react more or less each weekend.
07:42So, wait and see every weekend. Tell me, look, the vote is on hold for now. The vote in the
07:48European Parliament on that EU-US trade deal. Under what conditions would you actually sign up for it?
07:53Yeah, for us, it's crystal clear that the US really is breaking the deal. They started some weeks
08:00after. They lifted 400 products from 15 as agreed as a baseline term to 50 for steel and aluminium,
08:08so motorcycles, pumps, agriculture, and so on. Then we had the Greenland issue. And now we have
08:18the tariffs based on Article 122, which is a surcharge. So, we have the normal tariffs and 10% and
08:29perhaps
08:2915% above. This means a lot of products are now tariffed more than 15%. So, another break of the
08:37deal.
08:37But meanwhile, Bernd Lange, the European Commission is putting pressure on you, on the Parliament,
08:42to go ahead and vote on this deal. Under what conditions would you bow to this pressure coming
08:47from the Commission?
08:48Nobody can make pressure or give pressure to me. I'm the European Parliament representative and
08:54the representative of the people. And if you're talking to the people on the street, it's totally
08:58clear that we should be clear to the United States. Now, we need a clarification from the
09:03United States in written form. We stick to the Scotland deal. So, no additional tariffs, no
09:11additional products to steel, and the 400 products have to be revised to 15%. This, we need.
09:19And what is best for European industry? They, of course, are crying out for some predictability.
09:23Yeah. That's indeed, as I mentioned. So, there were two reasons for the deal. One was predictability
09:30and the other, Trump mixed tariff policy with security policy. And therefore, we accepted
09:35the deal. The deal is totally unbalanced. It's in favour of the United States. But we said,
09:41better a deal than escalation and nothing. But the break is really on the side of the United
09:48States. And this has to be stopped. Otherwise, we have uncertainty.
09:51So, can you trust the Americans now as trading partners?
09:55That's a question. So, it's not a stable issue, of course. When I speak to Ambassador Gier, the
10:03USTR of the United States, of course, we have a good relation. We can talk. And I can trust him.
10:08But
10:08the situation and the decision-making in the United States is not based on a democratic process. At
10:15the end of the day, the president is deciding alone. And this is not a stable situation. And therefore,
10:20we are looking really to have fair partnership with a lot of reliable partners worldwide. So,
10:28not have an alternative, but a little bit more stability in the global trade order.
10:34But as you say, every weekend is very unpredictable. And just regarding the tariff threats from last
10:39weekend, how should the EU respond to this? Should we start using now really dramatic tools?
10:44Yeah, no, that's not the case. So, excuse me, we are waiting a little bit. I mentioned this to the
10:51commission, but also to the US side. We need clarification that this is an exceptional situation.
10:56They will use the tariffs. They will bring back the so-called derivatives and give a guarantee for,
11:03let's say, the next three years that nothing will happen. And then, of course, we will move on.
11:08And if in the next week, nothing will happen, then we have to reflect countermeasures, counterterrorists,
11:13for example.
11:14And what about the EU Mercosur deal? You want to see it provisionally applied, but a lot of people
11:19would disagree with that.
11:20No, we have sent to court, the European Court of Justice, three questions, which are not
11:28dealing with the content of the more formal issue. And therefore, also some of the people
11:35voted in favor of this request to the court, say, of course, we can live with the provisional
11:41application. So I guess if there is a notification from the Mercosur country that I expect coming
11:47before the summer break, we should go ahead with the provisional application. And I guess
11:52this will be supported by the parliament as well.
11:55Okay. And just one question on Friedrich Merz's visit to China. What are your takeaways from that?
12:01Yeah, it's a little tricky. On the one side, we have to be clear. The unfair trading practices
12:06have to be mentioned. And we have also our defensive instruments. But on the other side,
12:11China's a big country. We have also some common interest in climate protection and
12:16cooperation. So I guess we have to find the balance between the two sides of the coin.
12:22And so far, I guess the Chancellor did quite well.
12:25Okay. Bert Lange, thank you so much for coming in to us this morning here on Europe Today.
12:29And as you heard, of course, Friedrich Merz is indeed in China and has said that the trade
12:33imbalance between his country, Germany, and China is, quote, not healthy. Friedrich Merz said
12:38he wanted to find ways to reduce this trade deficit, which has quadrupled in the last
12:42five years. He also said that Beijing has to use its influence with Moscow to help end
12:47the war in Ukraine. For more, we can cross straight over now to Berlin and bring in our
12:51correspondent, Diana Ghesnik. Good morning, Diana. Just tell us more about the trip. Big
12:56focus, of course, on the economy.
13:00Indeed, China is the biggest trading partner for Germany. And just to give you one fact,
13:05I recently talked to a China expert who advised Merz just last week how to behave in China. And
13:11indeed, Merz came to China with a big business delegation. So it's all about economy. And
13:17one has to say that the German-Chinese relationship has not been without its frictions. Just last
13:23year, Germany suffered a 90 billion trading deficit with China. And just to tell you what this means
13:29for Germany, this means 10,000 manufacturing job loss each month. So this is huge. And Merz was
13:37telling during his trip that Germany will react and do something about it. But at the same time,
13:43Merz brought a major deal with aircraft from Airbus. China is going to buy 120 engines, a huge success.
13:54But of course, even though economy is very important, Merz also will be talking and has
14:01been talking about geopolitical issues, especially about Russia. Let's have a listen.
14:08China's voice is heard around the world. Its decisions carry weight. But this also brings
14:13with it a responsibility. I, therefore, asked my interlocutors today to use their influence to end
14:20Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, an issue on which Beijing can exert influence.
14:26We know that signals from Beijing are taken very seriously in Moscow. That goes for words as well as deeds.
14:34We are for Taten.
14:37So Diana, of course, serious geopolitical motives, as you say, for this trip as well.
14:44Indeed, Germany does not do any trading with Russia due to the war in Ukraine,
14:48but Germany is also trapped between the US and its unpredictable President Donald Trump and his
14:55constant threat because of the tariffs. And on the other hand, a very strong rival,
15:00very strong economical rival, China, who with his cheap goods is threatening the German economy and
15:08the German businesses. But of course, Germany wants to become independent from the US and it needs China.
15:15But also China needs Germany and the European markets because it relies heavily on its exports.
15:21So both countries have their cards at hand and can negotiate on the economical issues.
15:30Indeed, not an easy time for the German economy. We're keeping, of course, a very close eye on it.
15:34Diana Resnick, thank you so much for that live update from Berlin. But now, moving on,
15:40we need to talk about Iceland. The Nordic island, known for its dramatic landscape,
15:45is planning to hold a referendum on opening a session talks to join the European Union.
15:51It could happen in the next few months. Prime Minister KristÃn Fróstadóttir made this very
15:56announcement in Warsaw and our reporter Jakub Janus has been taking a look.
16:02Iceland was supposed to vote on joining the EU in 2027. But now, that vote might happen this August.
16:09But why the rush? Two words, Donald Trump. US tariffs are biting and the US president is threatening to
16:19annex nearby Greenland. Perhaps it didn't help that his ambassador nominee just joke about making
16:25Iceland America's 52nd state. And with such friends around, suddenly Brussels' bureaucracy looks
16:33incredibly appealing. Let's investigate together. Iceland actually applied to join the EU in late 2000s
16:41after its banking system collapsed. But as the economy recovered, Reykjavik froze negotiations in 2013
16:48and completely withdrew its bid two years later. The biggest stumbling block today are fishing rights.
16:55Iceland's economy relies on its waters. And handing over control is a tough sell. Or at least it was
17:02before Brexit. But for Brussels, Iceland brings massive wealth. Its GDP per capita is roughly double the EU's
17:10average. But we have to remember their size. Iceland's population is less than one thousandth of the
17:17entire bloc. Plus they are already deeply integrated. And Iceland is a founding NATO member and sits
17:25inside the European Economic Area, adopting EU laws without getting a vote. But hey, let's look also
17:32at the big Arctic picture. Because Norway uses the same model, Oslo is also in European Economic Area
17:40and outside the EU. And pools show a slim majority still opposes full membership. And then there is Greenland,
17:48which left the EU predecessor in 1985 over fishing quarters. Today it remains outside the bloc as an
17:55autonomous territory of Denmark. And Donald Trump repeatedly called the EU bad for trade. But for
18:01Iceland right now, it seems becoming the 52nd US state sounds a whole lot worse. So as they say in
18:08Reykjavik,
18:14Jakob Yannis reporting for us there. And for more, we're joined here on set by our very own Sasha
18:19Vakilina. So really, this idea of EU enlargement, Sasha, really making a comeback, if you like.
18:24Absolutely. And I think it's fair to say that this is the new momentum that we have been observing
18:28since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and since Ukraine applied and then was granted the
18:32candidate status in June 2022. But it is a tricky one. Because on one hand, the EU is trying to
18:38give
18:38it more momentum and to encourage those countries who do want to join the European Union. But the
18:43process is still very slow. And even for some of them, like Ukraine, we heard from the President of
18:47the European Commission in Kyiv just two days ago that you cannot fast track something this important.
18:53And Ukraine's aspiration to join by 2027 seem to be just aspirations at this stage.
18:59Indeed, Sasha Vakilina, thank you so much for that update. And for more on that topic of
19:04enlargement and whether or not Ukraine should be fast-tracked into the European Union, you can take
19:09a look at our brand new episode of The Ring on Euronews. But that does bring this edition of Europe
19:14Today to an end. Thank you so much for tuning in, as always. We love having your company.
19:19Take care and see you very soon here on Euronews.
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