Humeyra Pamuk, Dave Graham and Tala Ramadan
Buergenstock, Switzerland/Dubai: US President Donald Trump threatened to restart war with Iran even as Vice President JD Vance met Iranian officials for the first talks under an interim peace deal, overshadowed by Tehran’s announcement it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz.
The talks in the Qatari-owned Swiss mountaintop resort of Buergenstock on Sunday (Switzerland time) were the first to be held under the terms of a memorandum of understanding agreed a week ago.
It calls for the strait to be reopened and a halt to all hostilities, including in Lebanon, which US ally Israel invaded in March.
But Iran, arguing that Washington had failed to meet its commitment to halt fighting in Lebanon, said it had shut the strait again and that Sunday’s talks would not cover substantive issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Trump said on Truth Social, apparently referring to Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
Fox News reported that Trump had gone further in an interview, saying he had told Iranian officials if they closed the strait “you won’t have a country”.
“You won’t even make it back to your f—ing country … we’ll take over the rest of the country,” he said, according to Fox News. “We may take over the Strait, if we have to. I’ll blow the shit out of them.”
At the talks in Switzerland, where US and Iranian officials met in the presence of Qatari mediators, Vance played down the impact of violence in Lebanon, saying progress had been made towards ending hostilities there. “These things are always a little bit messy,” he said.
Iranian state media said the talks had entered a “difficult phase” and recessed after the “publication of an insulting message by the US President”. The Iranian delegation then met with Qatari mediators and left the negotiating site, state media said.
Despite the heated social media exchanges, an official with knowledge of the talks later told the Associated Press that the Iranian delegation remained engaged in the talks and has not indicated to mediators any intention to leave. The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
Even as Trump was threatening Iran, Vance told reporters that the US president had “asked us to turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran”.
The warring sides did not pursue a joint photo opportunity at the talks. Before Vance made his remarks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi briefly walked into the room and embraced Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a mediator. Aragchi did not interact with Vance, who was at the back of the room.
Despite the announcement of a new ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday, there has been scant sign of an end to fighting there. Iran said on Saturday that as a result, it had again shut the strait, whose closure for nearly four months caused the biggest disruption of global energy supplies in history.
US officials disputed that the strait was closed, but commercially available shipping data showed an immediate impact.
Only a single small tanker crossed the waterway with its location-signalling transponders on after Iran’s announcement, compared with dozens of ships in recent days when traffic had begun returning to pre-war levels.
Iran’s Fars news agency cited a military source as saying on Sunday that no new permits were being issued for ships to cross until further notice. Throughout the war, shipping firms have said it was too dangerous to traverse without Iran’s permission.
Iran said there could be no start to the next phase of talks, including over its nuclear programme, until Lebanon fighting ends and it gets promised economic benefits.
As has happened several times with major developments affecting the global economy during the war, Iran’s announcement that the strait was again shut took place on the weekend with markets closed, delaying any impact on oil prices until Monday.
Trump said he agreed last week’s memorandum of understanding to avert a global economic depression from high oil prices caused by the strait’s closure. Oil prices had tumbled over the past week to levels unseen since the war started.
Vance said before his departure that he hoped to make progress on the nuclear issue. But after Sunday’s talks, Iranian state media said Iran’s nuclear programme had not been discussed.
Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that, since Washington had failed to guarantee a ceasefire in Lebanon, the meeting would cover only the implementation of the memorandum itself and not the substantive issues foreseen for the next stage.
The memorandum foresees 60 days of talks on issues such as curbing Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Before those issues are resolved, Iran expects to receive initial economic benefits, such as sanctions waivers and the unfreezing of blocked assets.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, quoted by Fars, expressed optimism that the US talks could provide a strong basis for economic growth. The first goal of the negotiations was restoring access to some of Iran’s frozen assets, he said.
Sunday appeared to be the quietest day in Lebanon for some time, with no reports of major violence by nightfall, after two days of heavy Israeli strikes and fire from Hezbollah fighters on Israeli positions.
In a potentially positive sign on Sunday, Reuters journalists in southern Lebanon saw some of the heaviest traffic since the memorandum was signed, with residents returning to homes they had fled in the south. Some stood beside cars backed up on the highway and waved Hezbollah flags.
Reuters, AP
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
