Vance set to arrive in Switzerland ahead of negotiations with Iran

Vice President JD Vance departed the United States on Saturday to travel to Switzerland for direct talks with Iranian regime officials. The vice president is leading the negotiating team that will attempt to hammer out a final deal with Tehran before the clock runs out of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by both sides that paused the war President Donald Trump launched earlier this year to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program and degrade its military. 
The agreement, signed last week, gives a 60 day window for Washington and Tehran to reach a final accord to address Iran’s illicit nuclear program, permanently reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, and end the fighting. 
Vance will join White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, who are already in Switzerland and are already engaged in negotiations. 
Ahead of Vance’s departure, President Trump reiterated his longstanding promise: that negotiations will end with Iran giving up its nuclear program. 
“They’re never going to have a nuclear weapon. OK? It’s very clear and very simple,” Trump told Axios in an interview. 
The anticpated talks this weekend were almost scuttled when renewed fighting broke out between Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon, and Israel, which has occupied swathes of southern Lebanon to push back the group. Both sides have accused one another of violating the conditions of the ceasefire. 
The agreement between the United States and Iran to pause the war included a provision which called for a ceasefire on all fronts, which includes the Israeli conflict against Hezbollah. However, Israeli officials have asserted that they are not bound by the terms of the U.S.-Iran MOU, which the country did not sign. 
Iran views a ceasefire in Lebanon as a red line for negotiations with the United States. Iran’s military on Saturday announced that it would close the Strait of Hormuz in response to the alleged violations. Opening the vital waterway is a key goal of President Trump, who has grown weary of high oil prices as a result of the conflict. 

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