Vance meets top Iranian officials as U.S. looks to get negotiations back on track | CBC News

Trump threats shake up U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland on deal's details

U.S. and Iranian negotiators are in a 60-day sprint to reach an agreement on the technical details

CBC News Network’s Linda Ward speaks with Professor Thomas Schwartz on U.S.-Iran peace deal

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said Sunday 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.

But even as Vance called on Tehran to build on the moment, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to restart strikes on Iran for its support of Hezbollah militants in Lebanon or if it moved to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

"Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble," Trump said on social media, one of multiple provocative warnings to Iran on Sunday. "If they don't, we'll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!"

Vance and U.S. negotiators met with Iran's parliamentary Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at a Swiss mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne.

Mediators from Pakistan and Qatar were also present for the direct engagement that, according to Iranian state media, lasted about 80 minutes. The U.S. and Iranian negotiating teams also held separate private talks with Pakistani and Qatari officials.

The U.S. is looking to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear program amid concerns it may be used for military purposes, which Iran denies. Vance also is pushing Tehran to commit to keeping open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway through which about a fifth of world traded oil passes.

But Trump's comments from afar — he spent much of the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland — appeared to threaten to derail the negotiations.

Canadian-Iranians respond to the U.S.-Iran peace deal with mixed reaction

"They would do better to be careful about their statements," Ghalibaf posted on X. "Our armed forces are prepared to respond to them in a different manner. They may keep talking, it is we who act."

Iranian state media said the talks had entered a "difficult phase" and recessed after the "publication of an insulting message by the U.S. President." The Iranian delegation then met with Qatari mediators and left the negotiating site, state media said.

Despite the heated social media exchanges, an official with knowledge of the talks later told The Associated Press the Iranian delegation remained engaged in the talks and has not indicated to mediators any intention to leave. The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

Tehran wants spotlight on Lebanon

The on-again, off-again conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants continues to threaten to derail the effort for the U.S. to win concessions from Tehran on its nuclear program 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?" Vance said.

"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?"

Iran's main focus during negotiations on Sunday will be the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told Iran's state news agency on Sunday.

Israel, Hezbollah agree to ceasefire, according to regional sources

Yet only days after signing the agreement, it's 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 closed the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that transits a fifth of the world's traded oil and natural gas. Still, a renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, brokered on Saturday, appeared to be holding.

U.S. Central Command disputed Iran's claim that it had once again shuttered the Strait of Hormuz and said U.S. forces continued to monitor the situation to ensure traffic continues to flow through the waterway. Vance has said that millions of barrels of oil have moved through the strait in recent days.

Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz

The agreement signed by Trump and 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 U.S. strikes last summer.

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

How close Iran was to making a nuclear bomb

He repeated that stance on Sunday. "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," Pezeshkian said, according to Iran's state media.

Trump, in a telephone interview Sunday with Fox News, warned that the Iranian president should watch what he says and threatened to take over the rest of the country, in comments relayed by a Fox correspondent.

The vice-president was joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, for Sunday's talks. Witkoff and Kushner were on the ground in Switzerland ahead of Vance to begin sifting through the technical details of the nuclear talks.

Vance said he planned to be in Switzerland for just "a day or two," leaving much of the detailed negotiations to be spearheaded by Witkoff and Kushner, his role in the talks has heightened scrutiny of the vice-president at a time when he's actively considering a 2028 presidential campaign.

Trump and 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 Trump and the GOP have insisted did nothing to actually terminate Iran's nuclear program.

Trump routinely trashes the Obama-era Iran nuclear agreement. How is his deal different?

The agreement says commercial vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days without a charge, but does not preclude future fees imposed by Iran. Trump made his own threat on Saturday to levy U.S. tolls on the strait 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 have complained the conflict resulted in hiking gasoline prices ahead of peak summer travel months.

Further complicating matters, neither Israel nor Hezbollah are signatories to the deal between the U.S. 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.