JD Vance departs for Switzerland as White House looks to get talks with Iran back on track
TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance left for Switzerland on Saturday as the White House looks to get negotiations with Iran back on track.
Vance is expected to meet on Sunday with Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and central bank and oil officials, as well as mediators from Pakistan and Qatar dispatched to Switzerland for the talks.
The technical talks are aimed at adding key details to the preliminary accord to halt the nearly four-month war between U.S. and Iran signed earlier this week by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Vance was initially supposed to hold a first round of talks with senior Iranian officials on Friday at a mountainside resort in the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen, Switzerland, but his Iranian counterparts initially canceled their plans to attend because of escalating fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But negotiators for the U.S. and Qatar, with help from Iran, worked out an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah to tamp down the active hostilities, according to U.S. and regional officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Afterward, Iran’s state media later announced Saturday that its top officials would travel to Switzerland.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Iran on Saturday said that it closed the Strait of Hormuz because of Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and warned that while negotiators were going to Switzerland for talks with the United States on their interim agreement, not much likely will happen if the fighting doesn’t stop.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in response, threatened to impose American tolls in the crucial waterway if a final deal with Iran isn’t reached in 60 days, saying the money would be for “services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East.” His social media post underscored that the agreement calls for toll-free travel for 60 days.
The announcements indicated a rough start to technical-level U.S.-Iran talks that key mediator Pakistan said will begin Sunday, with Qatari mediators also participating.
Iran’s joint military command said the strait was closed because of the U.S. “clear breach of its commitments” by failing to end the war. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts.
Iranian state media said the negotiating team leaving for Switzerland includes parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and central bank and oil officials, among others. The deal calls for billions of dollars of Iran’s assets to be unfrozen.
The U.S. disputed Iran's announcement on the strait.
“Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic continues to flow, and U.S. forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this remains the case,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. The military said that 55 merchant ships transited Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil.
Negotiations toward a final agreement will begin once key commitments are upheld, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said. If they are not, “the memorandum of understanding as a whole will be jeopardized.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance confirmed that top negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were in Switzerland and working through technical details of anticipated negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. The interim deal gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but the issue is intricate and the time can be extended.
Vance told Fox News that he expects to leave for Switzerland in “the next couple of days.”
As part of efforts to revive direct talks, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Araghchi in Tehran earlier Saturday, according to officials in Islamabad who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The global economy braced for more uncertainty.
Ships began transiting after the interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed earlier in the week, a milestone that left plenty of questions unanswered. The U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and now allows Tehran to sell its oil freely — terms that have left some in U.S. Congress asking whether the war was worth it.
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Iran informed the militant group that Tehran won't reopen the strait until Israel announces publicly that it will comply with a “comprehensive ceasefire” in Lebanon and an end to military operations there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
The official said that Hezbollah would commit to a ceasefire if Israel does.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, later said that the military had received “updated directives from the political echelon to cease fire.” The official said that the military is operating in a defensive manner in Lebanon, which includes the right to respond to Hezbollah attacks.
The official also said that five Israeli soldiers had been killed in the past 48 hours in southern Lebanon.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 16 people, including two children, hours after reports emerged of a ceasefire agreement there. Seven people were trapped under rubble after strikes hit the southern city of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The death toll in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war has surpassed 4,000, Lebanon’s health ministry later announced.
An Israeli military official said that Hezbollah fired more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon overnight. Israel's army said that it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets and militants.
On Friday, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said that Israel “remains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire,” if Hezbollah honors the agreement and ceases hostilities.
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are signatories to the deal between the U.S. and Iran.
Hezbollah and Israel went to war two days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.
A new round of U.S.-backed talks between the Lebanese government, and Israel is expected in Washington next week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon.
A strike on Lebanon's Barish village killed four members of a family: parents and two children. In Arab Salim village, a body was pulled from a destroyed house, and in Doueir and Kfar Rumman villages, drone strikes killed a person on a motorcycle and a Lebanese soldier. Nine people were killed in strikes in Qannarit, Sohmor and Shehour villages.
Israeli jets flew low over the coastal city of Tyre.
“Our entire lives would change if there’s a ceasefire,” said one resident, Hussein Khoshman.
Some residents of northern Israel doubted the fighting would stop.
“I don’t believe in a ceasefire because it doesn’t exist,” said Miriam Hod in Metula.
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Bassem Mroue reported from Beirut, and Munir Ahmed from Islamabad. Abby Sewell in Beirut, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Seung Min Kim and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, and Jamey Keaten in Zurich, Switzerland, contributed to this report.
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A previous version of this story corrected the spelling of the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s last name to Baghaei, not Bagahei.
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