Speaking to reporters at the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland, Vance called Iran\u2019s ostensible invitation to UN nuclear inspectors \u201ca major milestone for the American people and the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, a few hours after Baghaei\u2019s comments, US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran had \u201cfully and completely agreed to highest level nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!)\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis will insure \u2018nuclear honesty.\u2019 If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!\u201d Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n \t \u201cBased on this and other major concessions being made by Iran, I have agreed to allow the Hormuz Strait to remain OPEN, with no further naval blockade. However, all ships are remaining in place should it be necessary to reinstitute the blockade, which seems, at this point, highly unlikely,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n The US lifted its blockade several days before Iran purportedly agreed to allow in UN nuclear inspectors, however.<\/p>\n Iran had initially pushed back against Vance\u2019s comments on Monday, with Baghaei telling the official IRNA news agency that Tehran had not negotiated on its nuclear program and had not accepted any new commitments during Sunday\u2019s talks with the US.<\/p>\n 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 Tehran, which routinely calls for the destruction of Israel, maintains that its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.<\/p>\n However, before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium to levels far beyond what\u2019s necessary for any peaceful application, and consistently obstructed international inspectors from checking its facilities. Israel has also said Iran was taking steps toward weaponization.<\/p>\n \u2018Only\u2019 Iran can determine how to use assets<\/p>\n In a second public rebuke of Vance, an Iranian diplomat said Tuesday that Tehran alone will decide how to use its frozen assets once they are unfrozen under a US-Iranian deal toward ending the Middle East war.<\/p>\n \u201cIran is the only country who will decide what to do with its assets, which are going to be defrozen and so I reject any claim by [Washington] about that there should\u2026 be any role for any other country to have an influence on those decisions or on those processes,\u201d Ali Bahreini, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told reporters.<\/p>\n Vance had indicated the US was 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 \t According to Vance, the plan was worked out by 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 Iran\u2019s frozen assets largely consist of oil revenues and central bank reserves trapped overseas, built up over years of sanctions. About $12 billion is expected to be released under the initial accord.<\/p>\n Bahreini said there would be some technical arrangements made by Washington and Doha, because the assets were frozen by the US, and some are in Qatar.<\/p>\n \t In general, Bahreini claimed there had been good progress in the talks, but after two people were reportedly killed by Israeli fire in south Lebanon on Tuesday, he warned that any \u201cviolation\u201d of the memorandum of understanding in Lebanon would create challenges for the talks.<\/p>\n \u201cLebanon is an unquestionable part of the agreement, and whatever happens in Lebanon affects the whole process, and it is the United States which should use all its leverage against Israel to make it to stop attacks against Lebanon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The IDF said<\/a> the strike was on armed Hezbollah operatives who were identified near Israeli forces.<\/p>\n \t 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 Israel had no part in negotiating the MOU reached last week, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from it. Still, the terms of the opening clause, permanently ending the war and ruling out any resumption, indicate that it is binding on the US, Iran \u201cand their allies.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli officials are bitterly opposed to the deal\u2019s terms, which resolve none of the war\u2019s key goals \u2014 notably, eliminating Iran\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and creating the conditions for the fall of the regime.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Pakistan for talks Tuesday with officials mediating negotiations between Tehran and Washington. The visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams were working on details of the deal following high-level negotiations in Switzerland Monday led by Vance and Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.<\/p>\n Separately, the US is mediating talks between Israel and Lebanon, after the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 in support of Tehran, sparking a new round of conflict.<\/p>\n After the US and Iran signed their MOU last week, Iran has been insisting that Israel halt its military operation in Lebanon as a precondition for talks.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n \t\t\t
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\n\t\tFile: Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei during a weekly press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital Tehran, on February 10, 2026 (ATTA KENARE \/ AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26173443606356-1-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tVice President JD Vance speaks to the media after the US and Iran held high-level talks at the B\u00fcrgenstock Resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, in Switzerland, June 22, 2026. (Nathan Howard\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFP__20260303__99QR4KE__v1__HighRes__SwitzerlandIranUnUsIsraelWar-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, holds a press conference at the UN Offices in Geneva on March 3, 2026. (Fabrice COFFRINI \/ AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260622__B7WD63Z__v1__HighRes__IsraelLebanonIranUsWar-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tThis picture taken from a position in the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel, shows Israeli military vehicles driving along a road in southern Lebanon on June 22, 2026 (Jalaa MAREY \/ AFP) \/<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-4-200x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"\/")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n