Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that peace negotiations with Iran have laid what he called a “good foundation for a successful final deal” to bring an end to the war that erupted at the close of February.
Vance made the remarks after he and Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf concluded an extensive opening round of discussions in Switzerland, with the goal of reaching a permanent end to hostilities between the two nations.
“The final deal is the house,” Vance told reporters. “We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house, but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the American people.”
The vice president outlined four areas where the two sides had made headway during the initial Switzerland talks: establishing a system to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, coordinating a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reaching an agreement on International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, and setting up a framework for the technical negotiations still ahead.
Vance also pushed back on the idea that the United States was forcing a deal on the region, even though the negotiations touch on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah — without representatives from Israel or Lebanon at the table.
“This is a deal that the region has desperately asked the United States to put in place,” Vance said. “This region has been a basket case for a very long time.”
The vice president said he was heading back to Washington, but noted that American and Iranian “technical teams” would carry the talks forward. He said proper political oversight would be maintained from Washington as negotiators tackled complex issues, including how to monitor and handle nuclear material inside Iran.
“As much as this place is very beautiful, I can’t stay here for the next 60 days,” Vance told reporters.
Vance touted that Iran had agreed to welcome International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country. However, Iran did not confirm that claim, and it was not immediately clear how significant a development it would be. Since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025, inspectors have visited the country, but Tehran has denied them access to the enrichment sites that were bombed by the U.S. — locations where highly enriched uranium is believed to remain buried.
Vance acknowledged that Iranian negotiators “did threaten to walk out” at one point during the talks, a reaction he linked to social media posts by President Donald Trump that had offended Iranian officials. Vance defended the president’s online remarks.
“What we told the Iranians yesterday is when you guys engage in what us millennials might call ‘trash talk,’ you can’t expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record,” Vance said.
He noted that Iran’s delegation ultimately stayed at the table, with their technical experts remaining in Switzerland.
“So, yes, there was a little bit of threatening, there was a little bit of whining,” Vance said. “But at the end of the day, the talks continued and we made great progress.”
Vance also said that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and one of the lead U.S. negotiators, developed a proposal with Qatari officials under which Qatar would oversee a process where Iranian funds freed up through sanctions relief “would actually go to buy American soy, American corn and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.” Iran has not confirmed this arrangement and does not currently have demand for U.S. agricultural products.
Vance added that U.S. negotiators had remained in constant communication with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other regional leaders throughout the Switzerland talks. Some hardline members of Israel’s government have criticized Netanyahu for being left on the sidelines of the negotiations.
Separately, President Trump on Saturday escalated a public dispute with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, claiming she asked “over and over” for a photo with him at the recent Group of Seven summit and accusing Italy of failing to cooperate during the Iran war. The comments deepened a clash that began earlier in the week when Trump claimed in an interview with an Italian broadcaster that Meloni had “begged” for the photo at the G7 meeting in France — a claim Meloni called “completely fabricated.” The fallout led Italy’s foreign minister to cancel a planned visit to the United States.
“Italian Prime Minister Gigiorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote on his social media platform from Camp David, misspelling her first name in his initial post before later correcting it.
Meloni fired back, stating that “these constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless.”
Meanwhile, the Switzerland-based mediation effort, which also included officials from Qatar and Pakistan, got off to a rocky start Sunday before producing some agreements. Mediators from Qatar and Pakistan described the outcome as “encouraging progress,” pointing to the creation of a “de-confliction cell” to address the fighting in Lebanon and steps to keep the Strait of Hormuz — a critical route for global energy supplies — open and secure.
