Middle East Peace Talks Delayed as Swiss Meeting Postponed

By AFP

Efforts to advance a newly signed agreement aimed at ending hostilities in the Middle East suffered a setback on Friday after Switzerland announced the postponement of follow-up talks meant to support the implementation of the deal.

The development came just hours after the planned visit of United States Vice President JD Vance to Switzerland was called off, raising fresh uncertainty over the next phase of diplomatic engagements tied to the accord.

The agreement, signed earlier this week, was designed to bring an end to the conflict involving Iran, facilitate the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and launch a 60-day negotiation process focused on broader regional issues, including Tehran’s nuclear programme.

As part of the arrangement, hostilities in Lebanon were also expected to cease.

However, concerns over the durability of the deal emerged on Friday after the Israeli military announced fresh strikes targeting Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.

“The planned talks between the US, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan have been postponed,” the Swiss foreign ministry said in a message to AFP.

“Switzerland remains ready to facilitate these talks. The relevant preparatory work at Burgenstock is continuing,” it added, without providing a new date for the talks.

It followed the announcement late Thursday from the White House that Vance’s trip was cancelled, with a spokesperson saying the “logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable.”

“We look forward to beginning technical talks as soon as possible.”

In Iran, the Tasnim agency had said “nothing has been confirmed” about the Iranian delegation’s trip to Switzerland.

The agreement has been signed separately by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Thursday that he had approved the accord, despite reservations, even as the United States lifted a blockade of Iranian ports.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who took over after his father and longstanding ruler Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war on February 28, said in a written statement that he held a “different view” on the deal, without elaborating.

“But I issued my permission due to the commitment” made by officials including Pezeshkian to “protect the rights of the Iranian nation”.

“Face-to-face negotiations” with the United States will be held in the future, but that does not “mean accepting the enemy’s point of view”, he added.

On Friday, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that Tehran would give a “decisive” response if the agreement was breached.

American forces on Thursday lifted their naval blockade of Iranian ports that had prevented ships from sailing to or from the Islamic republic, the US military said, noting that American warships “will remain in the general area”.

Activity was still muted in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic bottleneck for energy shipments that Iran blockaded during the conflict.

Three Saudi oil tankers left the Gulf through the strait on Thursday, maritime trackers said, as did a French vessel loaded with liquefied natural gas.

Iranian state TV, citing a statement from the country’s Supreme National Security Council, said that ships “seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz must submit their request” to a new government body tasked with overseeing the waterway.

In keeping with the terms of the deal, it added, “no fees whatsoever will be collected from applicants for a period of sixty days”.

The deal is aimed at bringing an end to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, which saw five weeks of all-out war until a ceasefire was struck in early April.