The first round of negotiations between the United States and Iran since the two sides signed a preliminary deal to halt their war was due to begin in Switzerland on June 21, with disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz and the conflict in Lebanon threatening the deal.
The US and Iran agreed to a 60-day ceasefire for the negotiations, but Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared on June 20 that the Strait of Hormuz was shut in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
US Disputes Closure Claim
The US military said, however, commercial vessels had continued sailing through the waterway. US Central Command reported that 55 merchant ships transited the strait on June 20, carrying more than 17 million barrels of oil bound for global markets, and vowed that American forces would ensure commercial traffic continues.
Those developments are seen complicating the talks in which both sides want to advance an interim deal brokered by Pakistan and signed on June 17 to end an almost four-month-long war.
Negotiating Teams Arrive in Switzerland
US Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Switzerland early on June 21 to lead an American negotiating team that includes President Donald Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
An Iranian team that included General Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, its lead negotiator in earlier talks and speaker of its Parliament, arrived earlier. The talks, including mediators, were to start “during the course of the morning,” Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue,” with a “couple days of talks” likely, Vance told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before departing.
Hormuz: Closed or Open?
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, accusing Israel of “crimes” in Lebanon that violated US commitments to the ceasefire, warned ships would be at risk if they approached the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of global oil supplies before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
Despite the Lebanon truce, Israeli forces and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked each other on June 20, with Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killing at least five people according to Lebanese state media
Trump said there would be no toll for passage through the strait during the 60-day ceasefire or after, unless the US imposed one should peace talks fail.
In a social media post, he cited the possibility of a toll levied by the US “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 US of failing to implement the first of the Iran deal’s 14 points, which include a ceasefire “on all fronts”, including Lebanon.
As long as the agreement is only on paper, he added, the flow of Middle East energy would stay halted.
On the other hand, Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said that if Western stakeholders adhere to the spirit of the pact, hundreds of investment opportunities and contract formats stand ready, according to the ministry’s news outlet, Shana.
Lebanon conundrum
The Iranian delegation at the resort – owned by Qatar, which has mediated in the peace efforts – includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, as well as senior security, central bank and oil officials, Iranian media said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran would press for fulfilment of commitments, citing past failures by the other side to honour agreements.
