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Switzerland said on Saturday that Oman would host talks between the United States and Iran in Geneva next week, with Washington pushing <\/a>Tehran to make a deal to limit its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n \u201cSwitzerland stands ready at all times to offer its good offices to facilitate dialogue between the United States and Iran,\u201d a Swiss foreign ministry spokesman told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n On February 6, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held talks in Oman<\/a> with US envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump\u2019s influential son-in-law Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n The talks were indirect, with the Omanis acting as mediators.<\/p>\n Trump has recently focused his military threats <\/a>on Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme, which US forces struck last July during Israel\u2019s unprecedented 12-day war<\/a> with Iran.<\/p>\n Trump said on Friday that a change of government in Iran would be the \u201cbest thing that could happen\u201d, as he sent a second aircraft carrier<\/a> to the Middle East, ratcheting up military pressure on the Islamic republic.<\/p>\n Switzerland has played a key role in diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States for decades.<\/p>\n Renowned for its neutrality, Switzerland has been representing US interests in Iran since Washington broke off relations with Tehran after the 1980 hostage crisis, a year after the Iranian revolution.<\/p>\n In its role as the so-called protecting power, Switzerland has for decades allowed the two feuding nations to maintain a minimum of diplomatic and consular relations.<\/p>\n The Swiss embassy in Tehran handles all consular affairs between the United States and Iran, including passport requests, altering civil status and consular protection for US citizens in Iran.<\/p>\n Under the protecting power mandate, \u201cSwitzerland can either offer to act as a go-between on its own initiative or can fulfil this function at the request of the parties concerned, provided that all those involved agree,\u201d the foreign ministry says on its website.<\/p>\n The United States will be holding separate talks<\/a>, also in Geneva next week, between Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n Moscow and Kyiv will hold US-brokered talks on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Swiss city, both countries have said, announcing the next leg in fraught negotiations seeking to end the four-year war.<\/p>\n Trump is pushing to halt the conflict, but two previous rounds of US-mediated talks <\/a>in Abu Dhabi have not yielded signs of a breakthrough.<\/p>\n<\/a>Go-between<\/h2>\n