Vice President JD Vance departed for Switzerland on Saturday ahead of technical-level talks on an interim ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran that aims to permanently halt fighting, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin nuclear negotiations.
The discussions were initially scheduled to begin on Friday but were delayed due to an escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that threatened to upend the fragile U.S.-Iranian ceasefire.
Vance is set to lead a delegation that includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kusher, the pair tasked with spearheading U.S. diplomacy efforts in the president’s second term.
The vice president said during a Fox News interview on Saturday morning that Witkoff and Kushner had already been on the ground in Europe for several hours “dealing with some of the technical elements” of the impending negotiations and that “things are going well.”
The 14-point memorandum of understanding signed electronically earlier this week extends the ceasefire and restores unrestricted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz for a 60-day period.
“One of the things the President has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the strait. That’s now happened,” Vance told “Fox & Friends” hosts, claiming that a “record” 16 million barrels of oil had flowed through the waterway over the past 24 hours.
The interim deal also establishes a framework for broader talks to resolve remaining sticking points in the conflict, including Tehran’s nuclear program and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
“The second thing the President has asked us to do, of course, is to get the enriched stockpile of uranium to ensure that we make it effectively impossible for the Iranians to rebuild their nuclear program, even over a very long period of time,” Vance said. “The program is destroyed, but we’re, of course, trying to take away as many of the cards where they may try to rebuild it if they don’t behave under this agreement.”
While the administration has cast the agreement as a breakthrough, a set of provisions that would lift sanctions on Iran and give it access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund has been met with skepticism from some Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal — ‘Death to America, Death to Israel.’ The regime will invest every penny it receives to further that aim,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday.
“President Trump has pursued peace through strength. I hope the intermediaries working on this deal are not undermining that objective,” the senator added.
Vance brushed off that criticism on Saturday, saying that billions of dollars would only be accessible to the Iranians if they “behave” and not a “single penny” would come from the U.S.
He also insisted that the U.S. “has all the cards” when it comes to the next phase of negotiations.
“The United States wins either way, but I think that what ultimately happens from here is very much up to the Iranians,” Vance said. “Do they want to behave better? If so, great. If they don’t want to behave better, the President of the United States still has a whole lot of options from here.”
Trump threatened on Saturday afternoon to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs” if a deal isn’t finalized by the end of the 60-day window.
The warning comes as U.S. and Iran offer different accounts over whether the strategic corridor is fully open to commercial shipping traffic. The U.S. says it is, while Iran’s top military command said on Saturday that it was once again closed.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Source: The Hill - News
