Following nuclear talks between U.S. envoys and Iran’s foreign minister Tuesday, reports indicated that an understanding on “guiding principles” had been reached between the two countries. But an actual agreement appears to be far off as the two sides inched forward on a path toward war, with the U.S. continuing to build up military assets off the coast of Oman and Iran undertaking live fire military drills that partially closed the Strait of Hormuz.

On Tuesday, U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff reportedly met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva for a three-hour meeting, with Abbas telling state media afterward that the talk had resulted in “good progress” but that an agreement would not be reached quickly. The U.S. delegation confirmed that “progress was made, but there are still a lot of details to discuss.” Vice President J.D. Vance gave a more blunt assessment of the talks, saying that the Iranians “are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through” the red lines that President Trump has set.

The talks were overshadowed by reports that Iran’s military closed part of the Strait of Hormuz in order to carry out live fire drills, including firing cruise missiles from trucks on the coast and from naval vessels. Iran has previously threatened to shut down the critical strait entirely, where a fifth of the world’s oil is transported. The drills came as The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Iranian regime appears to be preparing for imminent war with the U.S. by “deploying its forces, dispersing decision-making authority, fortifying its nuclear sites and expanding its crackdown on domestic dissent.” Human rights groups say that the regime has killed over 7,000 Iranians who participated in the recent anti-regime protests and has imprisoned at least 53,000, with security forces continuing to hunt down participants in schools and hospitals.

As the U.S. has deployed significant military assets to the Arabian Sea, including two aircraft carriers, a dozen other warships, and “hundreds of fighter jets and multiple air defense systems,” the Islamist regime is responding with strong rhetoric. “We reviewed our weaknesses and addressed them,” remarked Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council. “If war is imposed on us, we will respond.” Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was more direct. “More dangerous than the American warship is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea,” he stated in response to news of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln’s arrival in the region.

Despite the setbacks Iran endured last June during Israel’s 12-day war and the U.S.’s bombing of three key nuclear sites, The Wall Street Journal noted that the regime still has a formidable weaponry arsenal at its disposal, including “2,000 midrange ballistic missiles that can strike as far as Israel,” “significant stockpiles of short-range missiles capable of reaching U.S. bases in the Gulf and ships in the Strait of Hormuz,” and “significant stockpiles of antiship cruise missiles and torpedo boats.”

Still, as Axios noted, the extent of the U.S. military buildup and the lack of evidence of “a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran … on the horizon” could mean that “war is imminent.”

Experts like Jonathan Hessen, who serves as senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, also say that signs are pointing strongly to President Trump authorizing military strikes in the near future.

“I am very skeptical about the extent of success of the negotiations that took place in Geneva,” he observed during “Washington Watch” Tuesday. “We do hear also the remarks coming out of Tehran by the supreme leader of the tyrannical Ayatollah regime, saying that they’re not going to negotiate about deterrent weapons, they’re not going to negotiate about many other aspects related to American demands. So what type of substance is there in the first place? … All the while, we also are seeing a lot of U.S. forces entering into the theater, coming into the region, which does send a very clear signal to the Islamic Republic.”

Hessen went on to contend that the Iranian regime is currently continuing its pattern of acting as if it is willing to negotiate merely to buy time.

“I do not believe that the Islamic Republic has ever negotiated in good faith,” he emphasized. “They do aspire to achieve a negotiated solution that benefits them rather than the United States. … [T]hey keep saying, ‘If we’re attacked, we’re going to respond in force and it’s not going to stay within the boundaries of Iranian territory. We’re going to wreak havoc across the region’ — something obviously Israel, the United States, or any other country that is deliberate in its protection of national security interests of their respective countries, but also freedom of navigation, cannot accept.”

As to U.S. and Israeli demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear program, Hessen underscored that the regime would have to be forced to do so.

“The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has already come out and said that they’re not going to dismantle their nuclear program, so that is a done deal from Tehran’s perspective,” he noted. “Whether or not President Trump, with all the tools at his disposal, can convince the other side that he is being serious and they better follow suit, that’s a question to be seen.”