Talks on the brink: Iranian delegation walks out after Trump continues threats amid peace negotiations

BUERGENSTOCK, June 22 — Iran-US peace talks in Switzerland stretched ​into their second day on Monday, after a tense opening marked by Tehran’s announcement it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and US President Donald Trump repeating his threats to resume attacks on Iran.

Vice President JD Vance negotiated with Iranian officials on Sunday in the Qatari-owned Swiss mountain resort of Buergenstock to open talks ‌under the terms of a memorandum of understanding reached last week to extend a tenuous ceasefire from April for at least another 60 days.

Just before talks officially began ​on Sunday, Fox News reported that Trump said he told Iranian officials “you won’t have a country” if they tried to close the strait again. Trump also reiterated an earlier threat that the US would take over the waterway and possibly charge a toll of its own, Fox News said. US and Iranian sources provided separate accounts of the discussions in Switzerland.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing an informed source, said that after Trump’s threats became public, the Iranian delegation ​refused to return to the room where talks were held, though messages were still being traded via Pakistani and Qatari mediators. According to Tasnim’s source, Iranians said that the start of negotiations on nuclear matters required the delivery of other parts of the MOU, including the release of frozen assets and US waivers authorising Iranian oil exports.

“The Iranians never left and are still here meeting and negotiating deep into the night,” a US diplomat involved in the talks told Reuters. “We’ve talked about the Strait, Lebanon, nuclear issues, and details of implementing the MOU, among other topics.”

High-level discussions are expected to wrap up on Monday, with technical staff remaining to conduct further talks, according to a US official. The agreement called for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point ‌for global energy shipments, and ending all hostilities, including in Lebanon, where Israel has continued to launch deadly strikes as Iranian ally Hezbollah fires at Israeli targets.

Iran, arguing that the US had failed ⁠to meet its commitment to halt fighting in Lebanon, said on the weekend that it had again ⁠stopped maritime traffic through the strait and that Sunday’s talks would not cover substantive issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

At the talks in ⁠Switzerland, where US and Iranian officials met in the presence ⁠of Qatari mediators, Vance played down the impact ⁠of violence in Lebanon, saying progress had been made towards ending hostilities there.

“These things are always a little bit messy,” he said. Back in the United States, Trump threatened to resume attacks on Iran if it did not rein in its allies.

“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump wrote on social media, apparently referring to Hezbollah. “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard ⁠again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”

Even as Trump was threatening Iran, Vance told reporters the US president had “asked us to turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran.” A US diplomat late Sunday said discussions included “clarifying some of the confusing messaging from Iran on the Strait and building deconfliction mechanisms to ensure the Strait will remain fully open.”

Iran cites Lebanon as reason to close strait

Despite the announcement of a new ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday, there has been scant sign of an end to fighting there. Iran said on Saturday that as a result, it had again shut the strait, whose closure for nearly four months caused the biggest disruption of global energy supplies in history.

US officials disputed that the strait was ⁠closed, but commercially available shipping data showed an immediate impact. Five vessels passed the strait on Sunday, a sharp drop from the 26 ships spotted a day earlier, data from analytics firm Kpler showed. The data may exclude vessels that switch off their transponders while travelling in the Gulf.

Iran’s Fars news agency cited a military source as ⁠saying on Sunday that no new permits were being issued for ships to cross until further notice. Trump said he agreed to last week’s memorandum of understanding to avert a global economic depression from high oil ⁠prices caused by the strait’s ⁠closure. Oil prices had tumbled over the past week to levels unseen since the war started on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Brent crude futures rose more than US$1 (RM4.10) to US$81.66 a barrel in early Monday trading, following the rocky ​start to the peace talks.

Sunday appeared to be the quietest day in Lebanon for some time, with no reports of ​major violence by nightfall, after two days of heavy Israeli strikes and fire from Hezbollah fighters on ‌Israeli positions.

More than 1 million people have fled their homes in Lebanon since Israel invaded in March to pursue Hezbollah fighters ​who fired across the border in support of Tehran. Reuters journalists in ​southern Lebanon on Sunday saw some of the heaviest traffic since the memorandum was signed, with residents returning to their homes. Some stood beside cars backed up on the highway and waved Hezbollah flags. — Reuters