00:00And Iranian officials are holding out hope for progress towards a deal to head off renewed conflict
00:05when talks with U.S. negotiators resume on Thursday.
00:09This despite an enormous build-up of American military might in the Middle East.
00:13EU foreign policy chief Kaya Callas urging a diplomatic solution
00:18as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens strikes on the country.
00:22In the meantime, Iranian students have resumed protesting
00:25despite last month's bloody crackdown by the regime.
00:29Let's cross now to Reza Sayer in Tehran.
00:32First of all, Reza, what exactly are the scale and significance of these protests?
00:38According to a couple of reports on Iranian state media and some reports on social media,
00:44these were student demonstrations that took place on Saturday and Sunday,
00:49the first two days of the new semester, in four universities in Tehran
00:54and one university in the holy city of Mashhad.
00:57Based on what I observed on the brief video clips that were aired on state media and social media,
01:05these demonstrators numbered in the hundreds, and they weren't in public streets.
01:10They were limited to university campuses.
01:13So the scale was nowhere near what we saw in the protests in late December and January, of course.
01:22Many of these students were using these demonstrations to commemorate the deaths of some of the protesters who were killed
01:28in the crackdown.
01:29And during these demonstrations, there were indeed some anti-government slogans and slogans against Iran's supreme leader.
01:38Now, in at least a couple of these demonstrations, you also had pro-government students and what some social media
01:46posts described as Basiji students.
01:48Of course, the Basiji is a volunteer civilian auxiliary force under the Revolutionary Guard.
01:56They do everything from armed policing, armed security work, to social services, and they support the government.
02:04And again, at least on a couple of these demonstrations, those two sides got a little bit close and there
02:11were some punches thrown.
02:12Some headlines are describing these as clashes, but I would describe them as fisticuffs and punches.
02:20There's no indication that anyone was seriously hurt and no weapons.
02:24Obviously, this is a very sensitive time in Iran.
02:28Emotions are running high.
02:30You have a lot of students who are still reeling and grieving from the people killed last month and then
02:37who are furious with their government.
02:38And then you have pro-government students in groups who believe that Iran's enemies, namely the U.S. and Israel,
02:46are using these protests and using these deaths as justification to attack Iran.
02:53And it's perhaps understandable when these two sides get close in quarters like the university campus, you have some clashes
03:00like that.
03:01Now, a date has been set, Reza, for the next round of talks.
03:05So Washington says a military attack is still on the table.
03:08So how is Iran approaching this next round of negotiations?
03:13Yeah, indeed, the next round of indirect talks scheduled for this coming Thursday in Geneva.
03:20There on one side, you're going to have the Iranian delegation led by Ali Abbas Araqchi, the Iranian foreign minister,
03:26and his colleagues.
03:27On the other side, Steve Witkoff, the special U.S. envoy to the region.
03:35Iranian officials say that in these next round of talks on Thursday, they're going to present Washington with a draft
03:43proposal of the agreement.
03:45They're going to see what happens.
03:47Interestingly, there's no indication that the U.S. is going to present their draft agreement.
03:54All of this, of course, happening against the backdrop of Washington beating the drums of war, bolstering their forces in
04:03the Arabian Sea just off the southern coast of Iran.
04:06And U.S. President Donald Trump still saying that military action is still an option.
04:12And increasingly, Tehran is aware of that, and they're planning for both scenarios.
04:18I was speaking to Iranian officials at the foreign ministry today.
04:22Their position is still that they're approaching this as a good-faith negotiation, and they're still hopeful that an agreement
04:30could be reached.
04:31But they do see increasing signs that there could be a military attack, and they say they're planning for that.
04:39They say if there is an attack, they're planning for a response, and they say their response is going to
04:45be aggressive, and it's going to be regional in nature.
04:49So definitely nervous times here in Tehran, and a lot at stake in these next round of talks in Geneva
04:56on Thursday.
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