US President Donald Trump threatened to restart war with Iran yesterday even as Vice President JD Vance met Iranian officials for the first talks under an interim peace deal that was overshadowed by Tehran’s announcement it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz.
The agreement called for reopening the strait, 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 Hizbollah fires at Israeli targets.
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.
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.”
The warring sides did not pursue a joint photo opportunity at the talks.
Before Vance’s remarks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi briefly walked into the room and embraced Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a mediator. Araqchi did not interact publicly with Vance, who was at the back of the room.
Later yesterday, a US diplomat told Axios that during the talks the parties had made good progress on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.
The talks also focused on enforcing the ceasefire in Lebanon as well as the nuclear deal, the US diplomat told Axios.
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.
Only one small tanker crossed the waterway with its location-signalling transponders on after Iran’s announcement, compared with dozens of ships in recent days.
Iran’s Fars news agency cited a military source as saying yesterday that no new permits were being issued for ships to cross until further notice.
As has happened several times with major developments affecting the global economy during the war, Iran’s announcement on closing the strait took place on the weekend with markets closed, delaying any impact on oil prices till today.
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.
The memorandum foresees 60 days of talks on issues such as curbing Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions.
Before those issues are resolved, Iran expects to receive initial economic benefits, such as sanctions waivers and the unfreezing of blocked assets.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, quoted by Fars, expressed optimism that the US talks could provide a strong basis for economic growth.
The first goal of the negotiations was restoring access to some of Iran’s frozen assets, he said.
Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that since Washington had failed to guarantee a ceasefire in Lebanon, the meeting would cover only the implementation of the memorandum itself and not the substantive issues foreseen for the next stage.
Yesterday 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 Hizbollah fighters on Israeli positions.
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