After the talks, which ran for about three hours, Araghchi said both countries agreed on “a set of guiding principles” that would pave the way for a deal.
“Ultimately, we were able to reach broad agreement on a set of guiding principles, based on which we will move forward and begin working on the text of a potential agreement,” Araghchi told state TV after the talks in Geneva, which he described as “more constructive” than the previous round earlier this month.
Local media had reported ahead of the talks that Iran had fired live missiles towards the Strait of Hormuz and would close it for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns”.
Iran had announced a maritime military exercise on Monday in waterways that are crucial international trade routes through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state TV reported on Tuesday that the negotiations with the US would be indirect and focus only on Iran’s nuclear programme, not domestic policies including its bloody crackdown on protesters last month.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear programme. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump has also threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests.
Iran is marking 40 days, the traditional Muslim mourning period, since one of the deadliest days in the crackdown on protests that swept the country last month. Activists say at least 7,015 people have been killed, many in a bloody crackdown overnight between January 8 and 9.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the latest figures, has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists in the country to verify deaths.
Iran’s state news agency said the government would hold a memorial marking 40 days at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran, and blamed the demonstrations on “violent actions by armed groups allegedly directed by foreign intelligence agencies”.
Live-fire drills
Iran announced that its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard started a drill early on Monday morning in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Separately, EOS Risk Group said sailors passing through the region received a radio warning that the northern lane of the Strait of Hormuz, in Iranian territorial waters, likely would see a live-fire drill on Tuesday. Iranian state TV did not mention the live-fire drill.
It was Iran’s second warning in recent weeks about a live-fire drill.
Last week, Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the US has built up in the region.
The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for over two weeks.
US forces already have shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration is seeking a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment or hand over its supply of uranium.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signalled that Tehran could be open to compromise on the nuclear issue, but is looking for an easing of international sanctions led by Washington.
“The ball is in America’s court. They have to prove they want to have a deal with us,” Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC on Sunday. “If we see sincerity on their part, I am sure that we will be on a road to have an agreement.”
“We are ready to discuss this and other issues related to our programme provided that they are also ready to talk about the sanctions,” he added.
The US and Iran were in the middle of months of meetings when Israel’s launch of a 12-day war against Iran back in June instantly halted the talks.
During that war, the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites, likely destroying many of the centrifuges that spun uranium to near weapons-grade purity. Israel’s attacks decimated Iran’s air defences and targeted its ballistic missile arsenal as well.
Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.