Vance meets top Iranian officials as US urges Iran to ‘turn over a new leaf’

US vice president JD Vance said there was an opportunity to “turn over a new leaf” with Iran as the sides held talks aimed at building out the interim deal to end the war in Iran reached by the two sides last week.

Mr Vance and US negotiators met with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi at a Swiss mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne.

Mediators from Pakistan and Qatar were also in the room for the direct engagement that, according to Iranian state media, lasted about 80 minutes.

The US and Iranian negotiating teams also held separate private talks with Pakistani and Qatari officials.

The US is looking to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear programme amid concerns it may be used for military purposes, which Iran denies.

Mr Vance also wants to push Tehran to commit to keeping open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway through which about a fifth of world traded oil passes.

But the on-again, off-again conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants continues to threaten to derail the effort for the US to win concessions from Tehran on its nuclear programme and keep the strait open.

“The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf?” Mr Vance said as the talks, dubbed the Lake Lucerne Summit, got under way.

“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.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told the country’s state news agency ahead of the meeting with Mr Vance that their team’s negotiations looked to focus on the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The interim agreement was signed last week, and now top American and Iranian negotiators are in a 60-day sprint to reach an agreement on the technical details that hold massive implications for the world economy and global security.

Only days after signing the agreement, it is being stress-tested after fighting escalated in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah — and by the subsequent announcement by Iran’s military that it had again closed the vital waterway.

A renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, brokered on Saturday, appeared to be holding.

Mr Vance stressed that “great progress” had been made on Lebanon.

But minutes after he finished speaking, US President Donald Trump took to social media to threaten Iran if it did not rein in Hezbollah.

“If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Mr Trump wrote.

Iran is cautiously approaching the talks given its previous experience with US negotiations on the nuclear issue, which twice in the past year were interrupted by massive military strikes against the country.

“The implementation of any document is more important than its signing,” Mr Baghaei said on Sunday.

Iran’s president added that Iran will maintain its right to a nuclear programme.

“What is certain is that we will never back down from the right to enrich uranium, and the other side is also forced to accept it,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, according to Iran’s state media.

Mr Vance had originally been slated to be on the ground at the Burgenstock resort near Lucerne on Friday, but his departure from the US was delayed after fighting escalated in Lebanon and Iranian officials cancelled plans to attend the talks.

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US Central Command disputed Iran’s claim that it had once again shuttered the strait and said US forces continued to monitor the situation to ensure traffic continues to flow through the waterway.

Mr Vance has said that millions of barrels of oil have moved through the strait in recent days.

The vice president was joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, for Sunday’s talks.

Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner were on the ground in Switzerland ahead of Mr Vance to discuss technical details of the nuclear talks.

Mr Vance said he planned to be in Switzerland for just “a day or two”, leaving much of the detailed negotiations to be spearheaded by Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner.

His role in the talks has heightened scrutiny of the vice president at a time when he is actively considering a 2028 presidential campaign.

Mr Trump and Mr Vance have come under searing criticism from parts of their own party for the deal, with Republican hard-liners unfavourably likening it to a nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration that Mr Trump and Republicans have insisted did nothing to actually terminate Iran’s nuclear programme.

The agreement signed by Mr Trump and Iranian President Mr Pezeshkian immediately allows Tehran to sell its oil freely and paves the way for Iran to tap into billions of dollars in assets that are currently frozen.

It also calls for Iran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, believed to be buried under nuclear sites that were targeted in US strikes last summer.

Mr Pezeshkian, however, has insisted on Iran maintaining its right to enrich uranium.

Mr Trump in a telephone interview with Fox News on Sunday warned that the Iranian president “better watch his mouth”.

“He better shape up or we’ll take over the rest of the country,” Fox News quoted Mr Trump as saying.

The agreement says commercial vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days without charge, but does not preclude future fees imposed by Iran.

Mr Trump made his own threat on Saturday to levy US tolls if there is no deal with Iran in 60 days, insisting in a social media post that the money would be for “services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East”.

The Trump administration has been working to reassure global markets that the Iran war has been merely a blip on oil prices, as Americans complain the conflict resulted in hiking gasoline prices ahead of peak summer travel.

After the White House announced the deal a week ago, oil futures dropped almost 8% — and markets are expected to closely track the progress of talks when they open for trading on Sunday evening.

Further complicating matters, neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the deal between the US and Iran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep his 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.