Direct talks between the United States and Iran opened today at the Bürgenstock resort in the Swiss Alps, with Qatar and Pakistan mediating. Soon afterward, Iranian media reported that the Iranian delegation left the venue after threats from President Donald Trump, freezing the talks and casting doubt on whether they will resume.
According to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Trump’s threats stalled the negotiations. The report said it was not yet clear whether the contacts would continue. The American delegation was led by Vice President JD Vance, alongside Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Iran’s delegation was headed by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Vance called the meeting a “historic meeting” and said significant progress had been made, including on the nuclear issue, the Strait of Hormuz and the ceasefire in Lebanon. He said the key question was whether the sides could start a new chapter and change relations in the Middle East. But Lebanon appears to be the main sticking point, with reports saying Iran conditioned further talks on a halt to fighting there and on a U.S. guarantee of a ceasefire before entering the substantive phase of negotiations, including the nuclear file.
Minutes after the talks opened, Trump posted that Iran must immediately stop the activity of its proxies in Lebanon and warned that if it did not, the United States would respond with greater force. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the Swiss talks would last only one day and focus on implementing a memorandum of understanding, not the more substantive issues planned for the next phase. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he hoped the summit would produce a document advancing peace and stability, while Qatar’s prime minister called the event historic but said a final agreement had not yet been reached. In a Fox News interview, Trump said the memorandum was only an extension of the ceasefire, not a final deal, and that if Tehran did not commit seriously to negotiations, “all options” would remain on the table.
