Iran and US had earlier signed a memorandum of understanding which brought the war to an end however afterwards incidents indicate that the ceasefire is fragile as strait of Hormuz closes yet again.
The talks are expected to continue between US and Iran for the rest of the week in Switzerland after initially the Iranian negotiators walked out in protest against the threats issued by Donald Trump on social media.
If the strait of Hormuz remains closed, the US president threatened to bomb Iran and even to kidnap the Iranian negotiating team, forcing mediators Qatar and Pakistan to continue negotiations in the background.
Iranian state media said the talks had entered a “difficult phase” and recessed after the “publication of an insulting message by the US president”. Further the Iranian delegation met Qatari mediators and then left the negotiating site.
High-level negotiations continued before concluding in the early hours of Monday, while as technical talks between the two sides would continue for the rest of the week.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, praised Pakistan and Qatar for their mediation early on Monday, saying that they “delivered major progress”.
A joint statement from Qatar and Pakistan said the US and Iran agreed to set up a “communication line” for the strait of Hormuz and to set up a “de-confliction cell” with Lebanon’s government to ensure the “adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon”.
Trump’s threats contrasted with the tone adopted by his vice-president, JD Vance, who said he had been asked by the president to use the talks to turn over a new leaf with Iran.
Vance and US negotiators including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, had met Ghalibaf and Araghchi for about 80 minutes.
Iran said that it remounted the blockade in the strait of Hormuz in protest against the Israeli attacks in Lebanon and alleged that Trump was complicit with Israel in breaching the memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries. Israel killed more than 30 people in attacks on Saturday in central and southern Lebanon.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump wrote on social media. “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again.”
In a 20-minute phone call with Fox News, he said: “We may take over the strait, if we have to. If they don’t make a deal, we’ll collect tolls.”
He appeared to threaten to kidnap the Iranian negotiators, saying: “You close it and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your fucking country.”
Iran says the talks must focus on the Lebanon ceasefire, the terms for the reopening of the strait, and the lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports, alongside the unfreezing of Iranian assets held abroad. The head of the Iranian delegation, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has brought with him the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil company, and the head of Iran’s central bank, suggesting that the technicalities of oil sanctions being lifted and the channels through which frozen money can be directed to Iran are at the forefront of Iranian thinking.
