The IAEA has accused Iran of obstructing inspections and failing to give a full account of its highly enriched uranium stockpile after the material was apparently buried in US strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites during last June\u2019s 12-day Israel-Iran war.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Monday, before Vance made his comments, Baghaei said that outside of an unspecified \u201cbrief discussion,\u201d the talks in Switzerland had not touched on Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the points raised by the American delegation was the presentation of its positions regarding the nuclear issue,\u201d he said. \u201cA very brief discussion took place regarding the nuclear issue, but there was no discussion of details, and it cannot be said that negotiations on the nuclear issue have begun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t While Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, denies seeking nuclear arms, it has amassed uranium enriched to levels with no peaceful application.<\/p>\n Israel and the US launched a bombing campaign on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, but the fighting entered a truce on April 8 with none of those goals achieved.<\/p>\n Although Baghaei asserted that Iran did not acquiesce to any of Washington\u2019s demands, the US Treasury Department nevertheless issued a general license for Iran that authorized the production, delivery and sale of crude oil and petrochemical and petroleum products of Iranian origin through August 21.<\/p>\n Under the memorandum of understanding signed last week between Washington and Tehran, the United States agreed to issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives, and all associated services, including banking transactions, insurances and transportation.<\/p>\n Transactions authorized in Monday\u2019s general license include importation of Iranian-origin crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum products to the United States. It does not authorize transactions involving North Korea or Cuba.<\/p>\n When confirming the temporary sanctions relief, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent partially credited Tehran\u2019s purported agreement to allow IAEA inspectors to enter the country for the move, as well as its commitment to \u201cfree and open transit\u201d in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Vance: Washington wants to restrict Iran\u2019s unfrozen funds to purchasing US produce<\/p>\n Speaking at Burgenstock, Vance indicated the US is seeking to restrict the use of unfrozen Iranian assets to purchasing produce from US farmers for the \u201cbenefit\u201d of the Iranian people, rather than terrorism.<\/p>\n According to Vance, the scheme was worked out by US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and unofficial adviser Jared Kushner along with Qatari mediators, and would see Iranian funds unfrozen as part of a peace deal only after approval from Doha and Washington.<\/p>\n The initiative would be mutually beneficial to Washington and Tehran, since \u201cif Iranian assets are ever unfrozen, they\u2019re going to go to make American farmers richer and to feed the Iranian people,\u201d Vance said. Public concerns about unfreezing Iranian assets were sparked by \u201cmisreporting\u201d on the issue, he added.<\/p>\n \t Vance also said the US was in \u201cconstant contact\u201d with Israel and other regional partners throughout the negotiations with Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re constantly trying to keep our regional friends updated about this. This is not a deal that the United States is imposing on the region. This is a deal that the region has desperately asked the United States to put in place,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n Trump seeks to \u201clay the foundation, see if we can get to a permanent peace. If we can\u2019t, the president of the United States still has a lot of options to accomplish America\u2019s security objectives,\u201d Vance said. \u201cBut he has certainly committed us to this pathway for now, and we\u2019re going to keep on working and seeing what we can accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Very good progress\u2019 on Lebanon \u2018de-confliction,\u2019 says Vance<\/p>\n Along with IAEA inspections, the negotiations in Switzerland also secured agreement on \u201ca mechanism for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open,\u201d and made \u201cvery good progress\u201d on a \u201cdeconfliction mechanism\u201d for the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, Vance said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to make sure that we had the proper coordination set up so that if there is shooting, if Hezbollah fires at Israel or if Israel responds, if there are other conflicts that arise in the region, we\u2019re actually talking to each other and figuring out how to stop the shooting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He says the goal of the mechanism is to allow for direct communication when incidents occur between Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and other regional partners, falsely claiming that \u201cthere really hasn\u2019t been a mechanism to have those discussions until basically [yesterday,] when we set that up.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, a nearly identical deconfliction mechanism was set up during the Biden administration as part of the November 2024 ceasefire it brokered in Lebanon.<\/p>\n That panel included representatives from Israel, the Lebanese government, the US, the UN and France, and remains in place to date, albeit with limited effectiveness.<\/p>\n One apparent difference between the deconfliction mechanism described by Vance and the one that already exists is that the vice president says Hezbollah will be part of the conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes a junior guy (in Hezbollah) fires a drone that didn\u2019t have approval from the high command. Of course, Israel has to respond to that, but we could have a more peaceful situation if Israel responds in the context of the conversation that is ongoing between Hezbollah, Lebanon, Israel and other partners in the region,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n \t Washington believes it \u201ccan get to a place where Lebanon\u2019s territorial integrity and sovereignty is protected, Israel\u2019s security is protected, and that\u2019s going to require some coordination with the Lebanese armed forces, and also it\u2019s going to require the Iranians to rein in Hezbollah,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n He noted Iranian negotiators had threatened to walk out after US President Donald Trump threatened to \u201chit Iran very hard again\u201d if it did not rein in its \u201chighly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n The vice president defended Trump\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we told the Iranians yesterday is when you guys engage in what us millennials might call \u2018trash talk,\u2019 you can\u2019t expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun\u2019s office said he received a call from Vance, Kushner and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Monday about the Lebanon ceasefire and \u201cde-confliction cell.\u201d<\/p>\n They discussed \u201cthe issue of consolidating the ceasefire in Lebanon, stopping the Israeli military escalation, and steps that should be taken in this regard, including the possibility of forming a cell for this purpose,\u201d the Lebanese presidency said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26172528981149-e1782134312942-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, third from right, and Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, second from right, with the delegation of Iran at the Lake Lucerne Summit at the Buergenstock resort in Switzerland, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260621__B7RL9PB__v1__HighRes__SwitzerlandUsIranDiplomacyWar-e1782036231432-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tUS Vice President JD Vance (L) waits, alongside US President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff (C) and Jared Kushner, to meet with Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (not seen), at the Burgenstock luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 21, 2026 (Nathan Howard \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26171407229557-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tRescue workers and people search for any people under the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Qannarit village, southern Lebanon, on June 20, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mohammed Zaatari)<\/p>\n
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