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US-Iran talks in Switzerland abruptly called off
US vice-president JD Vance was scheduled to fly to Switzerland for talks with Iran but the meeting has been cancelled. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen US vice-president JD Vance was scheduled to fly to Switzerland for talks with Iran but the meeting has been cancelled. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock US-Iran talks in Switzerland abruptly called off JD Vance’s staff were at the airbase ready to fly to summit in Bürgenstock for Iran talks before trip was suddenly cancelled Talks set to take place on Friday between the United States and Iran on implementing the 14-point agreement to end their war have been cancelled, Switzerland’s foreign ministry has announced. The talks were set to begin in the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen on Friday, two days after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that opened a 60-day window to negotiate a permanent understanding about Iran’s nuclear program while getting oil traffic moving through the strait of Hormuz. The White House said the US looked forward to “beginning technical talks as soon as possible”, as it announced that JD Vance , who is leading negotiations for the Trump administration, would now not be travelling. Iran peace deal makes clear how far US has been forced to retreat since 2025 Read more “The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable. As of now the vice-president is not departing tonight,” a White House spokesperson said late on Thursday. The cancellation of the talks came so abruptly, that Vance’s staff and a small pack of journalists had even gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip. Dozens of White House officials, advance staffers and media were already in Switzerland to prepare for Vance’s anticipated arrival. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he had approved the MOU despite reservations, while at the same time, the United States officially lifted a blockade of Iranian ports . But the semi-official Tasnim news agency said before the talks were cancelled, that Iranian negotiators needed to see signs of implementation of the interim agreement from the US before the next rounds of peace talks could begin, and that there was no confirmation that its delegation would travel to Geneva. The cancellation of the talks came after a report from Al-Mayadeen, an Arabic language network that is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, that said Tehran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland due to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. Israel, which was not included in the peace talks and has distanced itself from the US-Iran agreement, has continued its fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon and launched fresh airstrikes early on Thursday. The MOU calls for the “permanent termination” of the war in Lebanon and for the country’s “territorial integrity an
