US, Iran delegations arrive in Switzerland for talks amid Strait of Hormuz tensions

US vice president, Iranian parliament speaker among those on the ground

Lebanon expected to top the agenda

Iran sanctions relief, frozen asset access also at stake

Delegations from the United States and Iran converged on Switzerland on Sunday for diplomatic talks under a memorandum of understanding on ending the war, even as tensions in the Middle East flared anew over the weekend.

According to Reuters, US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland at 5:59 a.m. local time Sunday ahead of talks with the Iranian delegation.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, had arrived earlier. Vance's arrival completed the assembly of the American negotiating team on the ground.

The Iranian negotiating delegation, led by parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, also arrived in Switzerland on Saturday, putting follow-on talks between the two countries on the verge of beginning.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, which is mediating the negotiations, confirmed in a statement Saturday that working-level face-to-face talks between the two sides would be held in Switzerland on Sunday.

Lebanon is expected to dominate the agenda at the first working-level meeting since the MOU was signed. The talks had originally been scheduled for Friday in Switzerland but were postponed after Israel continued airstrikes on Lebanon even after the US-Iran ceasefire agreement was reached, pushing the Lebanon issue to the forefront.

Vance had cited progress on a truce in Lebanon — which came under renewed Israeli attack — as one of his top priorities before departing for Switzerland.

Smoke rises over Nabatieh in southern Lebanon following an Israeli airstrike on Friday. [AFP]

An Iranian official also told CNN that ending the conflict in Lebanon was "the most important issue on the Iranian delegation's agenda." CNN, citing a diplomat familiar with the proceedings, reported that an emergency session on Lebanon had been added to the negotiating schedule and would be taken up as the top priority.

However, the substantive weight of the talks is expected to center on implementing the US-Iran ceasefire MOU signed June 17.

Analysts noted that the Iranian delegation's heavy representation of economic and financial figures signals a clear intent to press hard on US sanctions relief and expanded access to frozen Iranian assets abroad.

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, the Iranian delegation includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati — who appeared at the US ceasefire negotiations held in Islamabad, Pakistan, in April — and Hamid Bovard, deputy oil minister and president of the National Iranian Oil Company.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in an interview with Iranian state television that the delegation was heading to Switzerland "to demand that the other side fulfill its obligations."

Meanwhile, the talks are expected to take the form of a four-way meeting involving the United States and Iran alongside mediators Pakistan and Qatar. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the working-level session would include delegations from both countries as well as the Pakistani and Qatari mediators.

With the mediators participating in the follow-on negotiations as they did in the ceasefire talks, they are expected to play a role in bridging differences between the two sides.

ikson@heraldcorp.com