US and Iran agree on 60-day roadmap after Switzerland talks

BUERGENSTOCK: Senior US and Iranian officials concluded a first round of talks in Switzerland on Monday, with mediators Pakistan and Qatar saying the two sides had agreed on a roadmap aimed at reaching a final deal within 60 days.

A joint statement issued by the mediators and released by Qatar’s foreign ministry said technical talks would continue for the rest of the week at the Qatari-owned mountain resort in Buergenstock. The statement also said the parties had agreed on a mechanism to end the fighting in Lebanon and had opened a communication line intended to help ensure safe passage for commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

The discussions began on Sunday, when US Vice President JD Vance met Iranian officials under a memorandum of understanding reached last week to extend a fragile ceasefire from April for at least another 60 days. The negotiations continued into the early hours of Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post that Tehran had secured waivers for oil and petrochemical exports, the release of some frozen assets and the start of a reconstruction and development plan for Iran. The White House did not immediately comment when asked whether the high-level talks had concluded for the time being.

Conflicting accounts of talks

Accounts from the US and Iran differed on how the discussions unfolded. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing an informed source, said the Iranian delegation refused to return to the negotiating room after US President Donald Trump’s threats became public, although messages continued to be exchanged through Pakistani and Qatari mediators. According to Tasnim’s source, Iranian officials said talks on nuclear issues would require implementation of other parts of the memorandum first, including the release of frozen assets and US waivers permitting Iranian oil exports.

A US diplomat involved in the talks gave a different account and told Reuters that discussions had continued deep into the night.

"The Iranians never left and are still here meeting and negotiating deep into the night. We’ve talked about the Strait, Lebanon, nuclear issues, and details of implementing the MOU, among other topics", he stated.

The agreement calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending hostilities, including in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have continued while Hezbollah has fired at Israeli targets. Iran had said at the weekend that it had again halted maritime traffic through the strait, arguing that the United States had not fulfilled its commitment to stop fighting in Lebanon. Tehran also said Sunday’s talks would not address substantive matters such as its nuclear programme.

Trump threats and Lebanon concerns

Before the talks formally began on Sunday, Fox News reported that Trump had warned Iranian officials against trying to shut the strait again and had also repeated an earlier threat that the United States could take control of the waterway and potentially impose its own tolls. Trump said he had agreed to last week’s memorandum to prevent a global economic depression driven by high oil prices resulting from the strait’s closure.

At the Switzerland talks, Vance said progress had been made towards ending the violence in Lebanon and played down the turbulence surrounding the process.

"These things are always a little bit messy."

Back in the United States, Trump warned that Washington could attack Iran again if Tehran did not restrain its regional allies. In a social media post apparently referring to Hezbollah, he wrote:

Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don't, we'll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!

Even as Trump was issuing that warning, Vance told reporters that the US president had sought a different direction in ties with Iran.

asked us to turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran.

A US diplomat said late on Sunday that the talks also involved efforts to clarify what Washington described as conflicting Iranian messaging over the Strait of Hormuz and to create deconfliction mechanisms to keep the passage fully open.

Strait traffic and market reaction

Iran said on Saturday it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz because fighting in Lebanon had not ended despite the announcement of a new ceasefire there on Friday. The closure, which had lasted nearly four months, caused the biggest disruption of global energy supplies in history.

Data from analytics firm Kpler showed that five vessels passed through the strait on Sunday, down sharply from 26 ships the previous day, though the data may not include ships that switched off their transponders in the Gulf.

After the joint statement on Monday, Brent crude futures extended losses, falling by more than $1 to $79.44 a barrel. Oil prices had already dropped over the previous week to their lowest levels since the war began on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

In Lebanon, Sunday appeared calmer than recent days, with no reports of major violence by nightfall after two days of heavy Israeli strikes and Hezbollah fire on Israeli positions. More than 1 million people have fled their homes since Israel invaded in March to pursue Hezbollah fighters who had fired across the border in support of Tehran. Reuters journalists in southern Lebanon said they saw some of the heaviest traffic since the memorandum was signed, with residents returning home and some waving Hezbollah flags beside backed-up vehicles on the highway.