us-iran-peace-talks-on-track-claims-jc-vance

US Vice President J D Vance said on Saturday the peace talks with Iran were on and negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were already in Switzerland.

 

In an interview with Fox News, Vance said he also planned to join the talks in Switzerland in the next few days, contending that the US has all the cards."We'll plan the talks when the principals from the Iranian government, also the Qatari and the Pakistani governments arrive. That may happen as soon as tomorrow, but these things are always a little bit in flux,” Vance said.

 

"Jared and Steve have been on the ground now for a few hours, dealing with some of the technical elements of this negotiation," Vance added.

 

US President Donald Trump and Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian signed the Memorandum of Understanding to end the over three-month war and technical aspects of the agreement were to be discussed by negotiators in Switzerland beginning Friday.However, there was a delay due to a fresh round of firing between Israel and Lebanon."My understanding, talking to Jared and Steve this (Saturday) morning, is things are going well,” Vance said.

 

"What a lot of the criticisms of the deal have really underappreciated is that the United States has all the cards. The straits are now open. The Iranian military is now destroyed. The Iranians have committed to, of course, destroying that stockpile of enriched material,” Vance said.

 

“But we have a lot of economic pressure applied to the Iranians that we would be willing to relieve if they do what we need them to do. If they don't do that, of course, there's no skin off our back. They're still in a much weakened position," Vance said.

 

Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, ⁠said on Saturday  that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed to vessel ⁠traffic, ⁠citing alleged violations of a ceasefire agreement by the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s Mehr state news agency reported.It said that the closure ⁠was the “first step” in response to what it described as breaches of commitments and warned that further measures would be taken if “aggression” ⁠continued.

 

Lebanese authorities on Friday  reported 47 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, and Israel announced the deaths of four of its soldiers, the highest combined casualty count since the US and Iran struck their deal.