Today's Edition
GENEVA (AFP)
A new round of negotiations over the Middle East war is set to kick off Sunday as Iranian negotiators and US Vice President JD Vance arrived in the Swiss host city.
Before boarding his flight to Europe, Vance told reporters he hoped to "make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue. Those are the two big things that I think we're going to be focused on".
Follow-up talks had been planned in Switzerland on Friday but were postponed at the last minute after Israel launched deadly strikes in Lebanon following the deaths of four of its soldiers in combat.
Washington announced a renewed ceasefire there later Friday -- a condition of its preliminary agreement with Iran.
Citing a "breach of contract", Iran's central military command said "the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to vessel traffic".
Hormuz, a key conduit for oil and gas shipments, was blockaded by Iran for much of the war, sending shockwaves through global energy markets. Tehran had agreed to reopen it under the preliminary accord signed by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, and shipping traffic had begun to recover.
US Central Command said after Iran's announcement that safe passage through the international waterway had "remained intact" and that US forces were "present and vigilant".
Trump later warned that Washington could impose its own tolls on Hormuz if negotiators failed to complete the deal. There would be no tolls "unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America", Trump wrote on Truth Social.
An Iranian delegation arrived in Switzerland late Saturday, state media and the Swiss foreign ministry said. Iran's official broadcaster said it included parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Vance arrived at the Emmen Air Base in Switzerland on Sunday morning, having earlier said he could only stay "a day or two". US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were already there handling "some of the technical elements" and had reported that "things are going well", Vance said in an interview with Fox News earlier Saturday.
Pakistan, which has been helping to mediate, said Sunday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir had left for Switzerland to take part in high-level talks involving US and Iranian representatives and other mediators from Qatar.
The talks are meant to open a two-month negotiation period on issues left unresolved by the initial accord, notably Iran's nuclear programme.
