Foreign News
US-Iran negotiations in Switzerland to continue through the night
The US expects talks with Iran to continue through the night in Switzerland, a US diplomat has told reporters, as they work to permanently end the Middle East war.
The current round of negotiations got off to a rocky start, with the Islamic Republic’s delegation walking out in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats to strike Iran over its support for Hezbollah on Sunday.
A US diplomat at the Swiss venue told reporters early Monday that the Iranian delegation was involved in “robust discussions on all elements of the nuclear deal” and gave clarifications on Iran’s messaging “on the Strait and building deconfliction mechanisms to ensure the Strait will remain fully open.”
The negotiations to end a war that sowed chaos across the region and rattled the global economy are meant to trigger a 60-day period to settle broader issues that have dogged US-Iranian relations for decades.
But disagreement over key sticking points and the threat of renewed fighting in Lebanon weighed on the talks, with Washington and Tehran exchanging threats in parallel with the negotiations.
“The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after meeting with the Qatari delegation as one of the mediating parties, left the building where the negotiations were being held”, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said.
“At the same time as the talks began in Switzerland, Donald Trump published a message on X in which he repeated his threats and remarks against Iran”, it added.
Trump had threatened to strike Iran if it did not “immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble”.
Iran hit back with a warning of its own.
“They would do better to be careful with their statements; our armed forces are ready to respond to them in a different manner. No matter what they say, we are the ones who act”, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.
“New leaf?”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said troops would remain in south Lebanon “as long as necessary” and vowed that he would “not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons”.
Iran’s state broadcaster said the nuclear programme had not been discussed “during the 80-minute first round of talks” on Sunday.
It said the focus had been on the implementation of the memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington, and the situation in Lebanon.
US Vice President JD Vance had earlier hailed “a historic meeting”.