{"id":88469,"date":"2026-06-20T15:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/88469\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T15:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:45:12","slug":"us-and-iranian-officials-set-to-begin-peace-talks-in-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/88469\/","title":{"rendered":"US and Iranian officials set to begin peace talks in Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Swiss government announced on Saturday that diplomats were in Burgenstock to facilitate the start of US-Iran negotiations<\/a>, as officials from Washington and Tehran travelled to the resort to begin talks on a peace deal.<\/p>\n

US envoy Steve Witkoff was on his way, Axios reported, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was also heading to Switzerland, according to state media.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwitzerland continues to provide a discreet and reliable setting to facilitate talks at Burgenstock on the implementation of the memorandum of understanding<\/a> between the US and Iran,\u201d a spokesman for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs told The National.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiplomats from various countries currently present are continuing their efforts to maintain the dialogue,\u201d he added. \u201cFor reasons of confidentiality, no further information can be provided regarding those present or the discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US-Iran talks were set to begin on Friday, with Qatari and Pakistani mediators in attendance, but were delayed as preparations continued to secure the area in central Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe planned talks between the US, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan have been postponed. Switzerland remains ready to facilitate these talks. The relevant preparatory work at Burgenstock is continuing,\u201d the Department of Foreign Affairs told The National on Friday.<\/p>\n

Switzerland has long acted as a neutral intermediary between Washington and Tehran.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Race against time begins at Burgenstock<\/p>\n

The first round of US-Iran talks at the resort on Lake Lucerne is expected to focus on turning the interim agreement signed earlier this week into a broader and more durable deal, with negotiators racing against a 60-day deadline.<\/p>\n

The central issue remains Iran’s nuclear programme. Washington is seeking tighter restrictions on uranium enrichment, stronger monitoring mechanisms, and guarantees that Tehran will not pursue a nuclear weapon. <\/p>\n

Iran is expected to press for clearer commitments on sanctions relief and economic incentives. The talks are also expected to address wider regional stability, including the future of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, which was blocked by Iran at the start of the war on February 28. <\/p>\n

A major complication is the continued violence in Lebanon. Iranian officials have linked progress in the negotiations to an end to Israeli military operations in Lebanon<\/a> and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The Israeli army repeatedly targeted Lebanon on Saturday, killing more than 30 people. Iran responded by claiming to have blocked the Strait of Hormuz again. Iran’s Fars News Agency attributed the move to \u201cAmerica\u2019s blatant breach of promise and breach of treaty\u201d over the implementation of a \u201cfirst paragraph of the end-of-war agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agreement also leaves several significant issues unresolved, including Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its support for regional militias and proxy groups.<\/p>\n

Reports say that Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman is in Burgenstock, as well as Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and key negotiator. Qatar and Pakistan have played important diplomatic roles in facilitating contact between the two sides and helping to shape the negotiations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Swiss government announced on Saturday that diplomats were in Burgenstock to facilitate the start of US-Iran negotiations,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[11234,3188,1782,1781,17,714],"class_list":["post-88469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-foreign-desk-team","tag-iran","tag-standard","tag-story","tag-switzerland","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116783213670577349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}