Vice President JD Vance landed in Switzerland on Sunday morning to begin technical talks on the U.S.-Iran interim agreement, walking into a session reset by Iran's overnight declaration that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz for the second time in a week. The American and Iranian delegations and the Pakistani and Qatari mediators all arrived at the Bürgenstock Resort overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, with talks "set to begin during the course of the morning."
The restart, which Pakistan brokered after the Iranians walked away from a planned Friday opening, came hours after Tehran's joint military command said it had closed the strait, citing what Iranian state media described as the United States' "explicit breach of the first clause of the post-war memorandum of understanding" and continued Israeli strikes on the Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The U.S. disputed the closure. By Saturday evening, U.S. Central Command said on social media that 55 commercial vessels carrying more than 17 million barrels of oil had transited the strait and that "safe passage through the international waterway remained intact." President Donald Trump capped the day by warning he would impose American tolls on Hormuz traffic if a final deal is not signed within 60 days — a posture that has now made a 14-point memorandum signed Wednesday the central test of a war that has run nearly four months.
What is on the table
The technical talks were originally meant to start Friday but were called off after Israel and Hezbollah resumed strikes across the Blue Line in southern Lebanon. Mediators worked through Friday and Saturday to coax both sides back. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi traveled to Switzerland to lead portions of the discussion on Iran's nuclear program, the centerpiece of the memorandum, according to a diplomat attending the talks who described the schedule to CBS News. An emergency session on the Israel-Hezbollah fighting was added to the opening-day agenda — an unusual concession given that neither Israel, Hezbollah nor the Lebanese government is a party to the U.S.-Iran negotiation.
Iran's team is led by parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi as well as central bank and oil officials, reflecting the deal's promise to unfreeze billions of dollars of Iranian assets and lift the U.S. blockade on Tehran's oil exports. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir flew in late Saturday. On the U.S. side, presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner had arrived earlier; Vance told Fox News on Saturday morning that "Jared and Steve have been on the ground now for a few hours dealing with some of the technical elements of this negotiation."
On the strait
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy ordered all vessels to "absolutely refrain from any movement in the Strait of Hormuz until further notice," according to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV. A separate Iranian military statement tied the closure to "Israel's failure to withdraw from the territories of southern Lebanon" and warned that "subsequent steps have been planned." Iran's Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, said the strait would remain closed until a Lebanon ceasefire was respected and until waivers allowing the sale of Iranian oil were issued.
CENTCOM's response was flatter. "Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz," Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, told reporters. "Traffic continues to flow, and U.S. forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this remains the case." Trump, posting on Truth Social late Saturday from Camp David, was more pointed: "There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed." The fee, he said, would be for "services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East."
The Lebanon shadow
The southern-Lebanon front is now the unbound variable in the agreement. Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 16 people in Lebanon, including two children, with seven people trapped in rubble in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon's National News Agency said. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said five Israeli soldiers had been killed in the past 48 hours and that the army had received "updated directives from the political echelon to cease fire" while reserving the right to respond to Hezbollah attacks. The same official said Hezbollah had fired more than 50 projectiles overnight. The death toll in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war has surpassed 4,000, Lebanon's health ministry said.
Vance, asked by reporters about the Lebanon fighting before he departed, said "things are actually getting better there, and things are slowing down a little bit," and pledged to be in Switzerland "for a day or two." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told state television that if commitments are not upheld, "the memorandum of understanding as a whole will be jeopardized." A separate round of U.S.-backed talks between Beirut and Israel is expected in Washington next week.
Counterpoint
The deal has critics on both ideological flanks of the U.S. debate. Former President Barack Obama, in a Friday interview surfaced by the Washington Examiner, said the United States was "worse off" now than before the Iran war — a line conservatives have used to argue the administration oversold the agreement and gave Tehran the sanctions relief without binding it to the Lebanon ceasefire. From the left, the agreement's failure to constrain Israeli operations in Lebanon has Hezbollah-aligned voices and parts of Iran's parliament arguing Tehran got nothing concrete in exchange for unfreezing its oil exports. Both camps are watching the same test: whether the Bürgenstock talks produce a verifiable nuclear timetable or unwind into another walkout.
The first technical session runs Sunday at Bürgenstock. The memorandum gives negotiators 60 days to convert it into a final nuclear agreement, with an option to extend; the U.S.-Lebanon-Israel round in Washington is next on the calendar.