US-Iran talks in Switzerland delayed, White House says Vance remains ready to go

Plans for US Vice-President J.D. Vance to travel to Switzerland for a new round of talks with Iran have been delayed, the White House said on Thursday.
In a statement, the White House said plans for the technical talks had not yet been finalised and that the US delegation remained prepared to depart at the first available opportunity.
“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the statement said.
The announcement followed reports by Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen outlet that Tehran had suspended its delegation’s trip because of continued Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon.
During an earlier press briefing, Vance described future face-to-face negotiations as “obvious”, but added it did not mean “accepting the enemy’s opinion”. He told reporters he did not know when he would be travelling for the negotiations.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed a hard copy of a framework to end the war between the United States, Israel and Iran on “all fronts” and reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.
The Memorandum of Understanding, which was also signed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, paved the way for a 60-day window for broader negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, ballistic missiles and regional proxies, as well as schedules to lift sanctions on Tehran.
The talks in Switzerland were expected to launch the 60-day negotiation process, also involving mediators from Pakistan and Qatar, to work through the details and translate the framework into concrete action, including steps to fully reopen the vital trade corridor whose blockade has unsettled global energy markets.
Earlier this week, Trump said that the text was not yet final and warned that the US would resume bombing Iran if he was dissatisfied with the final version.
The framework opens the door to a US$300 billion fund for Iran’s reconstruction, funded by regional partners rather than the US. Trump has said the US will not contribute “10 cents”.

Trump has drawn criticism from within his own Republican Party and not just Democrats. US Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, blasted the framework as a “foreign policy blunder”.
“The details that I’ve seen so far look … awful. This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder,” Cassidy told a local news outlet.
Meanwhile, Democratic congressmen Gregory Meeks, Jim Himes and Adam Smith have demanded a briefing from the administration on the full text of the MOU.