Negotiators from the United States and Iran were set to start peace talks in Switzerland on Sunday, even as U.S. officials disputed Iranian claims about closing the key Strait of Hormuz.
High-level officials from Iran arrived in Switzerland for peace talks with the U.S., Iranian state media reported, as U.S. Vice President JD Vance departed Washington for meetings that Pakistan said will begin on Sunday.
Although the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire while negotiations take place, Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday declared the Strait of Hormuz shut, though the U.S. military said commercial vessels had continued operating in the waterway.
Those developments could complicate talks in which both sides seek to advance an interim deal brokered by Pakistan and signed on Wednesday by Presidents Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian to end their almost four-month war.
STRAIT OF HORMUZ, LEBANON REMAIN FLASHPOINTS
Pointing to what it called Israeli “crimes” in Lebanon that violated U.S. commitments to a ceasefire, the IRGC warned ships would be at risk if they approached the Strait, a vital conduit for global oil and gas supplies. But U.S. Central Command said 55 merchant ships transited the strait on Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil for global markets.
U.S. forces will ensure commercial traffic continues, Central Command said.
Trump said no toll would be charged for passage through the strait during or after the 60-day ceasefire — unless the U.S. imposes one should peace talks fail. In a social media post, he cited the possibility of a toll levied by the United States “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East” if a peace deal is not completed.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, accused the U.S. on X of failing to implement the first clause of its 14-point interim deal with Iran, which includes a ceasefire “on all fronts”, including Lebanon.
He said that, as long as the agreement was only on paper, the flow of Middle East energy would remain halted.
The Lebanon truce appeared fragile as Israeli forces and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked each other.
The Iranian delegation is led by chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as well as senior security, central bank and oil officials, Iranian media said. In addition to Vance, the U.S. negotiating team includes envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
