{"id":134182,"date":"2026-06-22T04:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T10:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/us-and-iran-wrap-high-level-talks-in-switzerland-after-making-encouraging-progress-mediators-say\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T22:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T04:40:19","slug":"us-and-iran-wrap-high-level-talks-in-switzerland-after-making-encouraging-progress-mediators-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/us-and-iran-wrap-high-level-talks-in-switzerland-after-making-encouraging-progress-mediators-say\/","title":{"rendered":"US and Iran wrap high-level talks in Switzerland after making ‘encouraging progress,’ mediators say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Minister
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, 3rd from right, and Speaker of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, 2nd from right, with the Delegation of Iran at the Lake Lucerne Summit at the Buergenstock resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, Switzerland, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OBBUERGEN, Switzerland (AP) \u2014 U.S. Vice President JD Vance and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf<\/a> on Monday wrapped up a lengthy round of initial talks aimed at solidifying a permanent end to the war between the countries.<\/p>\n

The mediation effort in Switzerland<\/a> which started Sunday \u2014 and stretched into the early hours of Monday \u2014 had rocky moments. But the talks also led to some agreements between the two sides.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said that while the high-level engagement had ended, technical negotiations would continue in Switzerland this week.<\/p>\n

The mediators hailed what they called \u201cencouraging progress\u201d made during the talks. A senior U.S. diplomat claimed progress on multiple fronts, including the establishment of \u201cmechanisms\u201d to ensure the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, a vital waterway for global energy shipments<\/a>, remains open and that a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Iran-back Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon holds.<\/p>\n

Yet the talks between the U.S. and Iran were jolted by blistering statements from U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>, who from thousands of miles away from the Swiss negotiating venue at a mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne was firing off comments that offended the Iranians.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media said talks had paused after the \u201cpublication of an insulting message by the U.S. President,” according to Iranian state media said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Iranians remained on site and the negotiations continued on, according to the senior U.S. diplomat, who was not authorized to comment publicly and briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Iranian state television reported Monday that the Iranian delegation had left the summit site to head to the airport in Zurich to fly back to Tehran.<\/p>\n

Trump didn’t attend what was dubbed the \u201cLake Lucerne Summit,” but his presence certainly loomed large.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the talks, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had vowed to \u201cnever back down from the right to enrich uranium,\u201d according to state media.<\/p>\n

Trump on Sunday told Fox News in a phone interview that Pezeshkian should watch what he says and also threatened to take over Iran, according to one of the news channel’s correspondents.<\/p>\n

Trump also continued to issue warnings against Iran on social media, posting as negotiators worked: \u201cIran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don\u2019t, we\u2019ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when Vance will depart Switzerland. Trump envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are handling much of the technical details on behalf of the U.S. delegation.<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that Pakistani and Qatari mediators delivered “major progress to end the Lebanon War<\/a>.\u201d But, he added, the first \u201creal test\u201d of negotiations would be whether the mechanism succeeded in halting the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

The senior U.S. diplomat said among the issues discussed was Iran\u2019s messaging as it related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran\u2019s military said it closed Saturday in response to continued fighting in Lebanon. U.S. Central Command has disputed that Iran closed the strait again.<\/p>\n

The interim deal<\/a> to end the fighting in Iran, signed last week by the leaders of the U.S. and Iran, also sets a 60-day period for negotiators to settle the future of Tehran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> amid concerns that it wants to use it for military purposes, a claim Iran denies. The fate of frozen Iranian assets, among other thorny issues, are also on the agenda.<\/p>\n

Though the talks will encompass a vast array of complex matters, Iran has insisted on first addressing the fighting in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s renewed ceasefire in Lebanon appeared to be holding, and Israel\u2019s military said it would lift movement restrictions for residents near the Israel-Lebanon border on Monday morning. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the U.S.-Iran deal.<\/p>\n

There was cautious calm Monday in Lebanon, with no Israeli strikes reported overnight after a day of quiet Sunday. Hezbollah likewise has not announced any attacks on Israeli forces since Saturday.<\/p>\n

The lull in fighting in Lebanon is the longest since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Abby Sewell in Beirut, David Rising in Bangkok and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this story.<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, US Vice-President JD Vance, Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif and Premier minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, at the Buergenstock resort resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, Switzerland, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, 3rd from right, and Speaker of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, 2nd from right, with the Delegation of Iran at the Lake Lucerne Summit at the Buergenstock resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, Switzerland, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler, Pool Photo via AP)(Urs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-134182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134187,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134182\/revisions\/134187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134182"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=134182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}