AFP
US Vice President JD Vance is leading a high-level delegation as peace talks with Iran is set to begin at a Swiss mountaintop resort on Sunday.
The US and Iran had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire for the negotiations but issue over the closure of Strait of Hormuz sparked fresh challenges.
It could complicate the talks in which both sides want to advance an interim deal brokered by Pakistan and signed on Wednesday by Presidents Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian to end an almost four-month-long war.
Vance arrived at the scenic Buergenstock resort, accessed by a narrow road snaking through leafy hills and several security checkpoints manned by armed guards, after landing at Emmen Air Base early on Sunday, accompanied by second lady Usha Vance.
In addition to Vance, the US negotiating team includes envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
The Iranian delegation has already arrived at the resort.
Pakistan said its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the army chief, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, had arrived to join the talks at the resort, where helicopters hovered overhead.
VANCE HOPES FOR PROGRESS ON NUCLEAR ISSUE, LEBANON
The talks, including mediators, were to start “during the course of the morning,” Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue,” with a “couple days of talks” likely, Vance told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before departing.
Despite the Lebanon truce, Israeli forces and Hezbollah attacked each other on Saturday.
US Central Command said 55 merchant ships transited the strait on Saturday, carrying more than 17 million barrels of oil bound for global markets, and vowed that US forces would ensure commercial traffic continued.
Trump said there would be no toll for passage through the strait during the 60-day ceasefire or after, unless the US imposed one should peace talks fail.
In a social media post, he cited the possibility of a toll levied by the United States “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East” if a peace deal is not completed.
SWISS GLITCH
Meanwhile, a technical fault in air traffic control, triggered by security measures for the peace talks in Switzerland, caused disruptions at Zurich airport on Sunday, aviation authorities said, adding the problem had been resolved.
The glitch occurred following the integration of a restricted zone over Buergenstock, the Swiss mountain resort where negotiations are taking place, into radar display systems, Swiss air traffic control authority Skyguide said.