US push to get Iran talks started hits an early bump. Vance stays at
home, for now
[June 20, 2026]
By AAMER MADHANI, JAMEY KEATEN and SAMY MAGDY
ZURICH (AP) — The American push to quickly begin high-stakes talks with
Iran hit a snag Friday, just days after the signing of an agreement that
opens a two-month window for negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program
and returning oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to prewar levels.
Iranian officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting
that Israeli strikes on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon
must stop before the talks can take place, according to three regional
officials and a person familiar with the matter. They were not
authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing mediation to try to get the
talks rescheduled and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The situation was fluid as Israel and Hezbollah agreed on Friday to
renew their ceasefire, according to a U.S. official and regional
officials. It remains to be seen whether that could help put the
U.S.-Iran talks back on track.
In Washington, President Donald Trump lashed out once again in the midst
of the intensified fighting in Lebanon and the stalled nuclear talks.
“We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did,” Trump wrote in a social
media post Friday. “They are FINISHED! We’ll play out the 60 days. They
get no money, not ten cents!”
Vance was ready for Swiss talks
Trump's vice president, JD Vance, had been prepared to make an overnight
flight to meet with his Iranian counterparts at a mountainside resort in
the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen and begin the technical talks.
Vance's staff and a small group of journalists had gathered at Joint
Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip. Dozens of
White House officials, advance staffers and more media were already in
Switzerland.
Then the trip was called off — abruptly and for the time being.
A White House statement said Vance, tapped by Trump to lead the
negotiations, decided to postpone his travel. It made no mention of the
escalating violence in Lebanon.
“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or
predictable,” the statement said.
But, according to officials, the Iranians made clear to the White House
that they had balked at starting the talks with Vance because of the
Israeli action in Lebanon.
While Iranian officials and Vance did not make it to Switzerland Friday,
a mediator from the Gulf country of Qatar found his way to the resort
near Lucerne, Switzerland, where the U.S.-Iran talks are to be held.
Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al Thani, met with the Swiss foreign minister, Ignazio
Cassis.
Fighting in southern Lebanon intensifies
The fighting had intensified with at least 18 killed by Israeli
airstrikes, while four Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon,
officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s
military would stay in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as
“Israel’s security needs require it.”
Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the U.S.-Iran agreement.
Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern
Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal does not
explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon’s “territorial
integrity.”
Hours before postponing his trip, Vance gave some indication of the
state of flux when he told reporters at a White House briefing that he
was uncertain if the talks were going to happen this weekend.
“We think these technical negotiations start sometime this weekend,"
Vance said. "That’s still the plan. But that could change.”
Soon after Vance spoke to reporters, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah
Mojtaba Khamenei, endorsed direct negotiations with the United States.
His terse statement, read by state media, appeared to signal to the
Islamic Republic’s leadership that it could move forward with a first
round of talks.
“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in
the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” Khamenei said.
The messaging seemed to give Khamenei, who was badly wounded in the U.S.
strike on Feb. 28 that killed his father, some maneuverability.
Hard-liners in the Iranian government, including Khamenei’s father, long
opposed direct talks with the White House, especially after Trump,
during his first term, pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by
Democratic President Barack Obama's administration.
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Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters in the James S. Brady
Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The meeting was initially supposed to be a signing ceremony
Vance was initially expected to go to Switzerland to sign the
agreement at a formal ceremony. Instead, Trump signed the document
Wednesday during a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles with
French President Emmanuel Macron. Iran's president, Masoud
Pezeshkian, separately signed the agreement.
It says Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is
believed to be buried under rubble left by U.S. military strikes
last year targeting Tehran’s key nuclear sites, must at minimum be
diluted under international supervision.
It also says Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a
commitment Tehran has made previously. Other commitments remain to
be worked out.
Iran believes it's in a strong negotiating position
Iranians would be going into the talks with a measure of confidence
after effectively shutting down the strait, causing global economic
reverberations, said Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East
Program at Defense Priorities in Washington.
She said the U.S. is now “essentially trying to negotiate our way
back to the prewar status quo."
Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North
Africa Program at Chatham House think tank, said the “buoyant”
Iranian leadership feels it has the upper hand. The endorsement of
the talks by the Iranian supreme leader “sends a very strong signal
domestically: ’We’re now on an equal footing with the U.S.'”
”‘Trump has gone from calling for regime change on Feb. 28 to this:
Now they’re going to sit down with us directly and talk about these
big issues,'” Quilliam said of the Iranians' thinking. “So it’s
intended more for the domestic audience, and telling them: ‘We are
firmly in control of this. There can be no protests, no revolution:
We are a new regime and we’re staying put.’”
Vance has to negotiate through political division
For Vance, a likely 2028 presidential contender, how the
negotiations play out could have enormous ramifications for his
political fortunes.
Vance's skepticism of foreign wars was a core part of his political
identity during his political rise, which included election as a
U.S. senator. Now he finds himself the chief defender of negotiating
an endgame to Trump's conflict that Democrats have largely derided
as a foolish gambit. Some hawkish Republicans are aghast that Trump
is getting behind a settlement that could put billions of dollars
into Iran's coffers.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said aspects of the deal are “completely out of step”
with Trump's goals.
Trump fiercely criticized Obama for the 2015 nuclear agreement,
which Trump argued failed to stop Tehran from advancing toward a
weapon and funneled billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic. The
Republican president exited the U.S. from the deal in 2018.
Trump has pushed back against comparisons to that earlier agreement,
saying he had “negotiated from strength” after a major military
campaign while asserting that Obama was paying the Iranians off and
not receiving acquiescence.
Wicker, R-Miss., was particularly concerned about the $300 billion
fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran
mentioned in the 14-point agreement. Trump and Vance have said no
U.S. taxpayer money would go to such a fund and it would not come
without concessions and reforms by Tehran.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Toqa Ezzidin in
Cairo contributed to this report
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