Vice President JD Vance began talks Sunday with Iranian officials in Switzerland expressing hope that the two sides could “turn over a new leaf” as, back in Washington, President Donald Trump threatened fresh attacks on Tehran if it blocked the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s lead negotiator responded by accusing the United States of being “desperate” and warning of retaliation against any U.S. aggression.
Despite the bellicosity, negotiators from the two countries — along with mediators from Pakistan and Qatar — sat down for a roughly 80-minute session at the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock, according to Iranian media.
The Bürgenstock gathering, dubbed the Lake Lucerne Summit, is part of a 60-day effort to build upon the recently announced U.S.-Iran ceasefire and establish a broader deal that would end the war and address concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
“The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf?” Vance said at the start of talks on Sunday.
“Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference but is certainly very much something that can happen?”
But tensions flared over the weekend after Iran said it was closing the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. U.S. Central Command said Saturday that commercial vessels were still passing through the waterway, but it said Sunday afternoon that it had no updates.
The safe passage of commercial vessels through the strait is critical to bringing down global oil prices. Since the war began Feb. 28, surging oil prices have hurt the U.S. economy and taken a toll on Trump’s approval ratings amid consumer worries about higher gasoline costs.
In a phone interview on Sunday with Fox News’s Trey Yingst, Trump threatened to attack Iran and take over the Strait of Hormuz if Tehran interfered with passage through the waterway.
“You close [the Strait of Hormuz] and you won’t have a country,” Trump said he told Iranian officials, Yingst posted on X “You won’t even make it back to your fu*king country.”
Trump also underscored the threat in a Truth Social post in which he urged Iran to stop Hezbollah militants in Lebanon from “causing trouble.”
“If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder,” he said.
Iran’s lead negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responded, “They better be careful with their statements,” and warned in a post on X that such threats are ineffective.
“We don’t count on the threats of the Americans,” he said. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency describedthe quadrilateral talks as entering a “difficult phase” after Trump’s message.
The negotiations in Switzerland are key to Washington’s goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Trump had cited Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a main justification for his decision to go to war.
A memorandum of understanding that Trump signed at the Palace of Versailles in France last week puts the onus on the U.S. to deliver early, including by lifting sanctions, freeing billions in frozen assets and dismantling a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The two sides established a two-month timeline to flesh out the details and settle issues that have plagued negotiators for years.
Iran promised to let shipping traffic flow freely through the Strait of Hormuz. The deal also outlined an end to military operations in Lebanon, which is a core issue for Iran and requires the Trump administration to pressure Israel to halt attacks on Hezbollah — even though Israel is not a signatory to the agreement and has denounced it.
U.S. intelligence agencies have warned the administration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to remain intent on continuing attacks in Lebanon, which could undermine Trump’s effort to negotiate a long-term agreement.
On Saturday, Israel’s government ordered its military to limit operations in Lebanon to defensive measures.
By Sunday afternoon, the fighting appeared to have eased, with no reports of Israeli strikes on Lebanon or Hezbollah attacks on Israeli targets.
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