US-Iran talks on a permanent ceasefire were set to kick off Sunday with top officials including US Vice President JD Vance converging in Switzerland, even after Iran issued a renewed order to close the Strait of Hormuz.
The two adversaries are engaging after separate clashes in southern Lebanon between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters delayed the start of talks. They're a few days into a 60-day window for negotiations after reaching a memorandum of understanding that President Donald Trump signed on Wednesday during a visit to Paris, though the deal allows for an extension.
While the hard-won interim deal signaled an end to hostilities, it's only the beginning of wrangling over the long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear capabilities. In another sign of potential risk, the fighting between Israel — which isn't a party to the deal — and Hezbollah prompted Tehran to claim a ceasefire violation and flex its leverage over the Hormuz chokepoint.
Vance departed from Washington on Saturday shortly after Pakistan said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and military chief Asim Munir would attend the meeting in Burgenstock, bringing two key mediators to the table.
“I can only be there for a day or two,” Vance told reporters before his flight left. “I think we're going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue.”
ALSO READ: Hormuz Tensions Escalate: Iran Announces Strait Closure Amid Ongoing Peace Talks With US
Iran's delegation includes Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, state-run IRIB News reported.
Vance said the goal is to get “the actual structure of negotiation in place,” building on technical discussions in Switzerland involving Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, Trump's two global negotiators.
On Friday, President Donald Trump said the two sides have time to make a deal while issuing a veiled threat to Iran.
“Otherwise, we will do things that won't make them happy, but I don't think it's going to get to that,” he said. “I think it's going to be very good.”
Iran's announced closing of Hormuz cast a cloud over the talks, but the immediate impact on vessel traffic was unclear. Even before the recent ceasefire, millions of barrels of oil had been quietly escaping the waterway each day.
The latest move will likely make risk-averse shipowners with vessels that have been trapped inside Hormuz for months more wary of exiting. Earlier Saturday, western naval forces had said vessels using the corridor could cross at any time and with their satellite signals either on or off.
US Central Command said commercial ship traffic increased in the strait on Saturday, with 55 merchant ships transiting cargo and more than 17 million barrels of oil.
“Iran announced the closure of the Strait, but it is not clear yet if that is more than rhetoric,” said Daniel Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “Meanwhile, they are sending negotiators to Switzerland. That suggests they do not want to lose the benefits they are promised in this MOU.”
Israel's previous strikes on Lebanon already complicated talks between Washington and Tehran, which has consistently sought to link Israel and its engagement with the US.
Tehran views the US as having “direct responsibility” for the situation in Lebanon and Israel's military actions, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in comments cited by the IRNA news agency.
Vance argued that “things are slowing down a little bit” between Israel and Hezbollah.
“It's going to be something we're just going to have to continuously manage to ensure that you know Israel and Lebanon are both safe and secure,” Vance said. “The big problem is that you have somebody will shoot and then somebody will respond, and you kind of have a chicken-and-egg problem.”
Israel has insisted it'll keep troops on its borders until it's sure that Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the US, is no longer a threat.
“Israel will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon for as long as required to protect the communities in the north,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday in a social media post.
Trump has expressed frustration with Netanyahu over previous strikes, suggesting they risked undermining the US-Iran talks.
“Israel has the right to defend itself,” Vance told reporters on Thursday. “But fundamentally, the Israelis, just like everybody else, have to respect this peace process that is fundamentally good for them and good for the entire region.”
The US-Iran memorandum led Washington to lift a naval blockade of Iranian ports and promise to waive sanctions that have blocked the sale of Iranian crude. Iran pledged to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for about a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies, though Tehran has warned it will require ships to have its permission and mandatory insurance in order to cross the waterway.
The US, Europe and Gulf Arab states have balked at the idea of Iran imposing fees.
Trump said in a social media post on Saturday there could be no tolls during or after the 60-day negotiation period, “unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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