Mediator for Qatar has confirmed the US-Iran talks in Switzerland have begun, according to AFP.
The talks between Iran and the US aimed at building out the fragile interim deal to end have been beset by difficulties including an Iranian decision to keep the strait of Hormuz closed in protest at Donald Trump’s inability to force Israel to end the fighting in Lebanon.
In a statement Qatar’s foreign ministry announced “the launch of the Lake Lucerne Summit and the first meeting of the high-level committee with the participation of representatives from the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the two mediating states, the State of Qatar and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan”.
The US vice-president, JD Vance, leading the US delegation, earlier said he was adding Lebanon to an agenda that had originally been conceived to focus on the opening of the strait, the lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports and the unfreezing of Iranian assets held overseas.
The Iranian delegation is led by the speaker of the parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, but the presence of the deputy oil minister and the governor of Iran’s central bank shows how Iran had wanted to focus on the terms for lifting sanctions.
The Swiss foreign ministry said the US and Iranian delegations, plus mediators from Pakistan and Qatar, were all present at the luxury resort.