JD Vance has arrived in Switzerland to launch talks with Iran over its nuclear program
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US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland on Sunday to help formally launch talks with Iranian leaders on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and forging a fragile interim deal to end the war in Iran.
Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, arrived at Emmen Air Base outside Lucerne shortly before 6 a.m. local time, according to his office.
The draft was signed last week, and now top US and Iranian negotiators are in a 60-day race to reach an agreement on a technical detail that has a major impact on the country’s economy and global security.
But the early days of that two-month period were marred by an exchange of fire in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah – and the subsequent announcement by Iran’s military that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas exports flow.
Vance was expected to land in the resort town of Burgenstock near Lucerne on Friday, but his departure from the United States was delayed after tensions flared in Lebanon and Iranian officials canceled plans to attend the talks.
The US Central Command has denied Iran’s claim that it has blocked the road again and said that the US military is continuing to monitor the situation to ensure that traffic continues to flow through the waters. Vance said millions of barrels of oil have gone through the crisis in recent days.
Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil and gas exports to the world, citing alleged violations by the US and Israel. The move comes ahead of talks in Switzerland aimed at developing an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran.
Vance left the US shortly after Iranian state TV said Iranian negotiators had arrived in Switzerland. Negotiators with Tehran included Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, as well as central bank and oil officials.
The US vice president joins special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who are already on the ground to begin sifting through the technical details of the nuclear talks.
Talks between the US and Iran will also include Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, as well as Qatari mediators.
While Vance said he plans to be in Switzerland for just “a day or two,” leaving the detailed talks to be led by Witkoff and Kushner, his role in the talks has heightened scrutiny of the vice president as he considers a 2028 presidential campaign.
Criticism over a deal
Trump and Vance have been heavily criticized by parts of their own party for the deal, and Republican extremists liken it to the nuclear deal signed by the Obama administration in which Trump and the GOP insisted they were doing nothing to end Iran’s nuclear program.
The deal signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian immediately allows Tehran to sell its oil freely and paves the way for Iran to receive billions of dollars in currently frozen assets. It is also calling on Iran to reduce its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, believed to be buried beneath nuclear sites targeted by US strikes last summer.
The agreement states that commercial ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days free of charge, but does not prevent future tariffs imposed by Iran. Trump made his own threats on Saturday to impose US tolls on the crisis if there is no deal with Iran in 60 days, insisting in a social media post that the money would be for “services provided to Middle Eastern countries as a Guardian Angel.”
Another irony is that Israel and Hezbollah signed the agreement between the US and Iran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep his troops in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to stop its attacks unless Israel is willing to withdraw from Lebanon.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in the first days after the agreement between the US and Iran killed 47 people in Lebanon, as well as four Israeli soldiers.
