ZURICH: U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland on Sunday for peace talks with Iran as both nations seek a durable end to their war while disagreeing over Iran’s claims that it had closed the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Although the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire while negotiations take place, Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday declared the Strait of Hormuz shut, though the U.S. military said commercial vessels had continued operating in the waterway.
Those developments could complicate talks in which both sides want to advance an interim deal brokered by Pakistan and signed on Wednesday by Presidents Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian to end the almost four-month war.
Pointing to what it called Israeli “crimes” in Lebanon that violated U.S. commitments to a ceasefire, the Revolutionary Guards warned ships would be at risk if they approached the Strait, a vital conduit for global oil and gas supplies. But U.S. Central Command said 55 merchant ships transited the strait on Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil bound for global markets.
STRAIT OF HORMUZ, LEBANON REMAIN FLASHPOINTS
U.S. forces will ensure commercial traffic continues, Central Command said.
Trump said no toll would be charged for passage through the strait during or after the 60-day ceasefire — unless the U.S. imposes one should peace talks fail. In a social media post, he cited the possibility of a toll levied by the United States “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East” if a peace deal is not completed.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, accused the U.S. on X of failing to implement the first clause of its 14-point interim deal with Iran, which includes a ceasefire “on all fronts”, including Lebanon.
He said that, as long as the agreement was only on paper, the flow of Middle East energy would remain halted.
The Lebanon truce appeared fragile as Israeli forces and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked each other.
The Iranian delegation is led by chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as well as senior security, central bank and oil officials, Iranian media said. In addition to Vance, the U.S. negotiating team includes envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran would press in Switzerland for fulfilment of commitments, citing past failures by the other side to honour agreements.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the army chief, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, will attend this weekend’s sessions, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs said.
Vance, in an interview with Fox News before leaving the U.S., said he was confident the ceasefire would hold, and that he had seen no evidence that the Strait of Hormuz was closed.
Negotiators will likely have a “couple days of talks”, he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue.”
The vice president and second lady Usha Vance arrived at Emmen Air Base in Switzerland at 5:59 a.m. (0359 GMT), a vice presidential spokesperson said.
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