The diplomat refused to be drawn on specifics but reiterated that the crux of the matter remained Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment program and that the talks would focus on “what kind of compromise would be feasible” on that issue.

But enrichment — which Iran says it needs for peaceful purposes, while also manufacturing large quantities of near-weapons-grade material — is a major sticking point, with the Trump administration vowing that any agreement with Iran would have to entirely prohibit the country from enriching any nuclear material.

For decades, Iran, which denies it intends to build a nuclear weapon, has categorically refused to give up its capabilities — instead plowing billions of dollars into refining the technology and constructing vast enrichment facilities, like the secretive Fordow installation, which is built deep underground inside a mountain.

After launching its first wave of strikes on Iran, Israel pointed to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which acknowledged Iran is enriching uranium to a higher level than other countries without nuclear weapons programs, in violation of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.

“Because Iran is now under immense military pressure, it might run out of options, and their nuclear capability is being degraded,” the diplomat said.

Until Trump’s decision to allow diplomacy another shot, the Geneva talks had looked like a European sideshow, with the US seemingly poised to join with Israel in the destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities.

The meeting, between the EU’s foreign policy chief, alongside the British, French and German foreign ministers and their Iranian counterpart, is now taking on greater significance, setting the stage for next steps and possibly acting as a bridge between Iran and the United States.

But there is an underlying fear in Geneva that the reinvigorated talks here, the first formal meetings with Iranian representatives since the escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict, will still go nowhere.

“It’s impossible to read anything Trump says because there is a daily barrage of statements,” the diplomat added.

China and Russia positioning themselves as voices of reason, calling for de-escalation of a conflict the United States is contemplating on entering — these are the optics Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin sought to project during a phone call on Thursday.

As US President Donald Trump weighs joining Israel in attacking Iran, the fast-spiralling conflict between two sworn enemies in the Middle East has presented Beijing and Moscow another opportunity to cast themselves as an alternative to US power.

In their call, Putin and Xi strongly condemned Israel’s actions, calling them a breach of the UN Charter and other norms of international law, according to the Kremlin. (The elephant in the room, of course, is Russia’s own violations of international law in its ongoing war against Ukraine — which Beijing has consistently refused to condemn.)

In Beijing’s readout, Xi struck a more measured tone and stopped short of explicitly condemning Israel — unlike his foreign minister, who did just that in a call with his Iranian counterpart last week.

Instead, the Chinese leader urged the warring parties, “especially Israel,” to cease fire as soon as possible to avoid further escalation and regional spillover.

And notably, in a veiled message to Trump, Xi emphasized that “major powers” that have a special influence on the parties to the conflict should work to “cool the situation, not the opposite.”

Beijing has long accused Washington of being a source of instability and tensions in the Middle East — and some Chinese scholars are now seizing on the Iran crisis to underscore that point.

Liu Zhongmin, a Middle East expert at the Shanghai International Studies University, attributed the latest flareup to the uncertainty created by Trump’s second presidency and the chaotic, opportunistic and transactional nature of his Middle East policy.

“(Trump) has seriously undermined the authority and credibility of US policy in the Middle East, eroded America’s leadership and image among its allies while also weakening its ability to threaten and deter regional adversaries,” Liu wrote in state media this week.

Another Middle East ‘forever war’?

Some Chinese online commentators have noted that Trump appears on the brink of pulling the US deeper into another so-called forever war in the Middle East.

At the outset of his second term, officials close to Trump repeatedly stressed the need for Washington to redirect its focus and resources toward countering China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. Yet five months in, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza continue to rage on — and Trump is now weighing US involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.

Beijing has no interest in seeing an all-out war against Iran that could topple the regime. Under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has emerged as a formidable power in the Middle East and a vital counterweight to US dominance — just as China is working to expand its own diplomatic and economic footprint in the region.

In 2023, Beijing helped broker a surprise rapprochement between arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran – a deal that signaled its ambition to emerge as a new powerbroker in the region.

China has long backed Iran through sustained oil imports and its seat on the UN Security Council. In recent years, the two countries have deepened their strategic ties, including holding joint naval exercises alongside Russia. Beijing welcomed Tehran into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS – groupings led by China and Russia to challenge the US-led world order.

Iran is also a critical node in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its global infrastructure and investment drive. The country lies near the strategic Gwadar port — a key BRI outpost in Pakistan that gives China access to the Indian Ocean — and borders the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for Chinese oil imports from the Persian Gulf.

Like Russia, China has offered to be a potential mediator in the Israel-Iran conflict, casting its role as a peace broker and an alternative to US leadership.

During his call with Putin, Xi laid out four broad proposals to de-escalate tensions, including resolving the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and safeguarding civilians, according to the Chinese readout.

Meanwhile, Xi’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has had a busy week on the phone, speaking with his counterparts in Iran, Israel, Egypt and Oman in a flurry of diplomatic outreach.

Yet it remains unclear what Beijing is willing and able to do when it comes to actually mediating the conflict. In the early stages of Israel’s war on Gaza, China made a similar offer and dispatched a special envoy to the region to promote peace talks — efforts that ultimately yielded little in terms of concrete results.

Brokering peace in the Middle East is a tall order, especially for a country with little experience or expertise in mediating protracted, intractable conflicts – in a deeply divided region where it lacks a meaningful political or security presence.

And in the one conflict where China does hold significant leverage — the war in Ukraine — Xi has offered diplomatic cover and much-needed economic support to help sustain Putin’s war effort, even as China continues to cast itself as a neutral peace broker.

Still, at a time when America’s global leadership is under growing scrutiny, particularly in the eyes of the Global South, presenting itself as a voice of restraint in the Iran conflict may already count as a symbolic win for Beijing.

Hungarian police said on Thursday in a statement that they were banning the Budapest Pride march of the LGBTQ+ community planned for June 28.

Hungary’s parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, citing the protection of children.

Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony tried to circumvent the law when he announced on Monday that since the Budapest Pride march will be a municipal event “no permits from authorities are needed”.

Budapest metropolitan police, however, said the law applied to the event organised by the mayor and banned it.

The police ban has “no relevance” as authorities were not officially notified of the plans for the event, Karacsony said on Facebook.

“The Metropolitan Municipality will host the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration on June 28, the day of Hungarian freedom, as a municipal event. Period,” the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest.

Orban faces a challenging election in 2026 where a new surging opposition party poses a threat to his rule.

His government has a Christian conservative agenda and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community has aimed to please Fidesz’s core voters, mostly in the countryside.

Orban said in February that organisers should not even bother organizing Pride in Budapest this year.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is facing increasing pressure to step down, after appearing to criticize the military in a 17-minute leaked phone call she had with Cambodia’s powerful former leader over an escalating border dispute.

The scandal, which sparked widespread anger in the country, brings fresh uncertainty to a country roiled by years of political turbulence and leadership shake-ups. Paetongtarn, 38, has only held the premiership for ten months after replacing another prime minister who was removed from office.

It also comes at a time when the Southeast Asian kingdom is struggling to boost its ailing economy, is negotiating a trade deal with the United States to avoid punishing tariffs, and is embroiled in an escalating border dispute with its neighbor Cambodia that has soured relations to their lowest point in years.

Paetongtarn apologized on Thursday and Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Cambodian ambassador to deliver a letter of protest, calling the leak of the private phone call “a breach of diplomatic etiquette.”

“Thailand views that these actions are unacceptable conduct between states. It contradicts internationally accepted practices and the spirit of good neighborliness” and “undermined the trust and respect between the two leaders and countries,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

In a post on his official Facebook page, Hun Sen said he had shared a recording of the call with about 80 Cambodian officials and suggested one of them may have leaked the audio. The 72-year-old political veteran later posted a recording of the 17-minute call in its entirety.

In the leaked call, which took place on June 15, Paetongtarn could be heard calling former Cambodian strongman Hun Sen “uncle” and appeared to criticize her own army’s actions in after border clashes led to the death of a Cambodian soldier last month.

Paetongtarn, a relative political newcomer from a powerful dynasty who became Thailand’s youngest prime minister last year, appeared to signal there was discord between her government and the country’s powerful military.

In the call, the Thai prime minister can be heard telling Hun Sen that she was under domestic pressure and urged him not to listen to the “opposite side,” in which she referred to an outspoken Thai army commander in Thailand’s northeast.

“Right now, that side wants to look cool, they will say things that are not beneficial to the nation. But what we want is to have peace just like before any clashes happened at the border,” Paetongtarn could be heard saying.

She also added that if Hun Sen “wants anything, he can just tell me, and I will take care of it.”

Her comments in the leaked audio, which was confirmed as authentic by both sides, struck a nerve in Thailand, and opponents accused her of compromising the country’s national interests. The Bhumjaithai party, a major partner of the prime minister’s government, withdrew from the coalition on Wednesday, dealing a major blow to her Pheu Thai party’s ability to hold power.

“Paetongtarn compromised her position as prime minister and damaged Thai national interest by kowtowing to Hun Sen,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University. “Her exit is a matter of time and she could be liable for further charges.”

The handling of the border dispute has also stoked nationalist fervor in both countries. In Thailand, conservative forces have called for Paetongtarn to face charges and resign. In Cambodia, thousands of people joined a government-organized rally last week in solidarity with the government and military over the issue.

Thailand and Cambodia have had a complicated relationship of both cooperation and rivalry in recent decades. The two countries share a 508-mile (817-kilometer) land border – largely mapped by the French while they occupied Cambodia – that has periodically seen military clashes and been the source of political tensions.

Paetongtarn on Wednesday tried to downplay her remarks to Hun Sen, saying at a press conference she was trying to diffuse tensions between the two neighbors and the “private” call “shouldn’t have been made public.”

The prime minister said she was using a “negotiation tactic” and her comments were “not a statement of allegiance.”

“I understand now, this was never about real negotiation. It was political theater,” she said. “Releasing this call… it’s just not the way diplomacy should be done.”

Hun Sen, the veteran leader who ruled Cambodia with an iron-fist for almost 40 years, stepped down in 2023 and handed power to his son Hun Manet.

But he remains a hugely influential figure in Cambodian politics, he currently serves as senate president and is a friend and ally of Paetongtarn’s father, the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Border dispute

Tensions between the two neighbors worsened last month, when a Cambodian solider was killed during a brief clash between Thai and Cambodian troops in which both sides opened fire in a contested border area of the Emerald Triangle, where Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet.

Thai and Cambodian forces said they were acting in self-defense and blamed the other for the skirmish.

Although military leaders from Thailand and Cambodia said they wished to de-escalate, both sides have since engaged in saber-rattling and reinforced troops along the border.

Thailand took control of border checkpoints, imposed restrictions on border crossings and threatened to cut electricity and internet to Cambodia’s border towns. Cambodia in return stopped imports of Thai fruit and vegetables and banned Thai movies and TV dramas.

Cambodia also filed a request with the UN’s International Court of Justice to seek a ruling over disputed border areas with Thailand, including the site of the most recent clash.

However, Thailand does not recognize the ICJ’s jurisdiction and claims that some areas along the border were never fully demarcated, including the sites of several ancient temples.

In 2011, Thai and Cambodian troops clashed in a nearby area surrounding the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO World heritage site, displacing thousands of people on both sides and killing at least 20 people.