DUBAI — Iran's Fars news agency cited a military source as saying on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and the Revolutionary Guards Navy has not issued permission for any vessels to transit until further notice.
The United States and Iran had agreed to a 60-day ceasefire for peace deal negotiations, but Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday declared the Strait of Hormuz shut in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, though the US military said commercial vessels were still operating.
US Vice President JD Vance and senior Iranian officials arrived in Switzerland on Sunday to launch negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and build out the fragile interim deal to end the war in Iran.
The framework was signed last week, and now top US and Iranian negotiators are in a 60-day sprint to reach an agreement on the technical details that hold massive implications for the world economy and global security.
Yet only days after signing the agreement, it’s being stress-tested after fighting escalated in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah and by the subsequent announcement by Iran’s military that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that transits a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas.
Vance first sat down for talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, who has served as a key intermediary between the United States and Iran throughout the conflict.
Iran’s main focus during negotiations on Sunday will be the ongoing war between Israel and Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran’s state news agency on Sunday.
Iran is insisting that the deal’s implementation start with the part of the deal that calls for a cessation of all wars, including between Israel and Hezbollah. Baghaei said the US “has been unable or unwilling” to hold Israel to the ceasefire.
Iranian officials were to hold their own meetings with Pakistani and Qatari mediators before a planned four-way meeting including the US negotiating team.
Iran is cautiously approaching the negotiations given its previous experience with the US negotiations on the nuclear issue, which twice in the past year have been interrupted by massive strikes against the country. “The implementation of any document is more important than its signing,” Baghaei said Sunday.
But Iran’s president added that Iran will maintain its right to a nuclear program.
“What is certain is that we will never back down from the right to enrich uranium, and the other side is also forced to accept it,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, according to Iran’s state media.
