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High-level talks between Iran and the United States resulted in “a lot of good progress,” Vice President JD Vance said as he left Switzerland on Monday after the two sides agreed on a road map toward reaching a final deal to end the war within 60 days.
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“We laid a very good foundation for a successful final deal,” Vance said at a news briefing before he departed for the U.S. “The final deal is the house. We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people.”
Technical negotiations were continuing in the mountaintop resort of Bürgenstock after a first round of marathon talks between senior figures from both countries. They had gotten off to a rough start, first canceled and then shaken by President Donald Trump’s renewed threats.
Vance confirmed that Iran had threatened to walk out over those comments, but he defended Trump. “What we told the Iranians yesterday is when you guys engage in what us millennials might call ‘trash talk,’ you can’t expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record,” Vance said.
The talks ultimately resulted in a joint statement released by mediators Qatar and Pakistan that struck a similarly positive tone, describing a “constructive atmosphere.” Washington and Tehran agreed to set up new communication lines to ensure the vital Strait of Hormuz is open and end fighting in Lebanon, mediators said.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the delegation, said Monday that the management of the strait would not return to the situation before the war.
“I was among the first people who clearly said at the beginning of the war that everyone should know the management of the Strait of Hormuz will never return to its previous state before the war,” Ghalibaf said, according to the hard-line Student News Network. “Of course, international laws are observed, and the Strait of Hormuz will be managed with respect to these laws and under Iranian arrangements by Iran.”
Ghalibaf noted discussions about the Strait of Hormuz hotline and said: “This contact line is not for permission. Permission follows its own process. This line is only for resolving issues of ships or possible incidents so that clarification can be made. This is also because the strait is managed by Iran, and we resolve the issues.”
Vance said Iran had agreed to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) back into the country.
“Letting in the inspectors is a big deal, but, again, we’re going to see what they actually let the inspectors do once they’re in the country,” he told reporters in Switzerland on Monday. “That’s going to continually be a part of our negotiation.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei did not specifically mention the return of IAEA inspectors in comments Iranian state TV posted Monday on Telegram.
“Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will continue according to its normal procedure and in line with the resolutions of the parliament and the decisions of the Supreme National Security Council,” Baghaei said. “According to informed officials about the details of yesterday’s talks in Switzerland, during the 18 hour negotiations, Iran did not hold any discussions on the nuclear file and has not accepted any new commitments.”
Vance also said Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner came up with “a very interesting solution” to unfreezing Iran’s assets that would involve U.S. and Qatari approval and then the use of the money to buy U.S. soy, corn and wheat. He said that was a “classic Trump deal.”
“That money is not going to be unfrozen unless we continue to see progress, and that will obviously be a big part of the negotiation in the days to come,” Vance told reporters in Switzerland on Monday.
Trump mentioned the planned arrangement to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
“Money that’s being unfrozen is going to be used to buy food, and the food’s going to be bought exclusively through the United States from our farmers,” Trump said. “And corn, soybeans, all of the things they need are going to be bought from our farmers.”
Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Monday that the negotiating team has departed from Switzerland “after approximately 18 hours of intensive talks and consultations.” But the agency said Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi was heading the Iranian team in technical talks.
The new talks are meant to resolve some of the thorniest issues in the deal that are yet to be agreed upon, including Iran’s nuclear program.
One of the main outcomes of Sunday’s talks was the establishment of a “High Level Committee” with political oversight of mediation, which agreed on a road map “towards reaching a final deal within 60 days, laying the foundation for the immediate commencement of further technical talks” on nuclear weapons, sanctions and dispute resolution, the joint statement said.
The talks also led to the creation of a deconfliction line between the parties and Lebanon, it said. Fighting in southern Lebanon between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel has continued even as talks in Switzerland progressed. Vance said Monday the U.S. was in “constant contact” with Israel during the talks, after Israel was effectively shut out of the negotiation process.
A communication line has also been set up to prevent “incidents and miscommunication” to allow safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global supply route for oil that has been blockaded for months.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Monday on X that the first meeting of the committee had “concluded successfully” in Bürgenstock.
The Swiss foreign ministry said it welcomed constructive progress made during the “intensive diplomatic talks,” which it said continued throughout the night. It called establishingment of the committee a “positive step, which will help to structure the next phase of the political and technical process.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi warned Monday on X that the deconfliction cell will be the first “real test” of the new progress, as he also touted “major progress to end [the] Lebanon War” and noted progress on oil exports, frozen Iranian assets and major reconstruction plans for Iran.
Global oil prices fell Monday after the talks concluded in Switzerland, easing worries about a supply shortage in global markets.
But the talks had been jolted by new threats from Trump, who warned the U.S. could resume attacks on Iran as Tehran once again shut down the Strait of Hormuz, citing ceasefire violations by Israel in Lebanon.
On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that “we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” unless it stops “their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon,” referring to Hezbollah.
And in a phone interview Sunday morning with Fox News, Trump said he spoke with Iran overnight, delivering a stark warning that if it closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. will “blow the s— out of them.”
Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, warned Monday that Tehran will no longer negotiate directly if such threats continue, the Student News Network reported.
Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.
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