JD Vance departs for Switzerland as White House gets talks with Iran back on track

TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance left for Switzerland on Saturday as the White House gets 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 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.

Iran’s team departs for talks as uncertainty grows

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.

The conflict that could sink the US-Iran deal

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.

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