Vice President JD Vance met representatives from Iran on Sunday in Switzerland, with help from officials from Qatar and Pakistan, for the first round of 60 days of negotiations promised in the most recent deal signed with Iran. Vance notes that, outside of recent talks in Pakistan, this is the most significant diplomatic meeting between the U.S. and Iran since the 1970s: “Never before has the Iranian and American leadership met at such a high level.” “Can we turn over a new leaf? Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently?” he said. Around the same time, President Trump posted on “Truth Social” that he’s not happy with the failure of the ceasefire to hold between Israel and Hezbollah. Vance is trying to proceed with the talks despite this and Iran’s reaction, once again claiming that the Strait of Hormuz is “closed.” “We’ve seen great progress over the last couple of days ensuring that the ceasefire holds in Lebanon,” Vance said. These things are always a little bit messy. If you go back to how much was happening three months ago and compare it to three weeks ago, great progress has been made. If you go back to three weeks ago to three days ago, additional progress has been made. The president has committed us to see a full regional ceasefire. We found great partners in working with the Qataris, the Pakistanis, our friends in Israel. We’re all working towards regional peace. There, of course, are going to be sometimes disagreements about precisely how to get there, but I actually feel great about where we are in Lebanon. There’s still some additional wood to chop, but we’re going to keep on working at it,” Vance said. Vance began by saying: “The opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the ending of the Iranian nuclear program – all of these things have already been accomplished. The question before us now is: How much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf? Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently? Or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference, but is certainly very much something that can happen?” He thanked Field Marshal Asmi Munir of Pakistan, whom he said he’s spoken to more than anyone else over the last three months aside from his wife. “I have joked that I have two very, very important people in my life: an Indian and a Pakistani. The Indian is my wife, and the Pakistani is Field Marshal Munir,” Vance said. “We would not be here without his statesmanship. He is, of course, a great military leader, but I think he’s shown himself to be a great diplomat, and… an important part of getting us to this point.” “I think it’s important for people all over the world to appreciate that what’s brought us to this moment is the president’s leadership and the president’s willingness to see a Middle East that is much different 10 years from now than it was 10 years ago.” “What we’re trying to accomplish here is something very simple: through diplomacy, through working together, to transform the Middle East, where Iran and the Gulf have been at war with each other, or at least have had very unfriendly relations,” he said. “Iran has been a driver of regional instability. Now, we see a future where everybody can work together to promote peace and prosperity for everyone.” “This is a historic meeting. Never before, outside of Islamabad and here – so outside the last few months – never before has the Iranian and American leadership met at such a high level.” “What the president has asked us to do is turn over a new leaf, to transform our relationship with the people of Iran, and to extend an outstretched hand that says to the people of Iran that if your leadership is willing to give up being a driver of regional instability, if they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions for the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with that country.” After this, the group took questions from the press:

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: We’ll take just a couple of questions, and then we’re going to have to kick out the media and get started with the hard work. Go ahead. REPORTER: Mr. Vice President, thank you. Do you have a message for Prime Minister Netanyahu with regards to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon? VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Well, first of all, we’ve seen great progress over the last just couple of days in ensuring that the ceasefire holds in Lebanon. These things are always a little bit messy. If you go back to how much was happening three months ago and compare it to three weeks ago, great progress has been made. If you go back to three weeks ago to three days ago, additional progress has been made. The president has committed us to see a full regional ceasefire. We found great partners in working with the Qataris, the Pakistanis, our friends in Israel. We’re all working towards regional peace. There, of course, are going to be sometimes disagreements about precisely how to get there, but I actually feel great about where we are in Lebanon. There’s still some additional wood to chop, but we’re going to keep on working at it. I know you had a question over here. REPORTER: Are you ready to stop genocide in Lebanon, as your alliance with Israel has [unclear] something like genocide in Lebanon? The main issue is stopping this. VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Well, ma’am, I think that the president of the United States and the United States of America have done more to stop the conflict in Lebanon than any government anywhere in the world over the last few months, and we’re going to keep on working towards it. As I think a lot of you appreciate, peace is never easy. Peace always requires a little bit of work. It always requires a little bit of give and take. But the president of the United States is committed not just to peace between the United States and Iran. The president is committed to a regional peace, which is why we’re here working so hard to settle our issues. The one last comment I want to make is what today really represents is the beginning of a technical negotiation that’s not going to solve every disagreement but is going to allow us to sit together as teams for the first time, really, in history, to figure out what matters most to the respective parties, to settle those issues, to solve those issues, and get to a better tomorrow. The reason why the political leadership of the respective countries is here is because we wanted to, first of all, set up the structure for these technical negotiations, and second of all, make sure that our teams have our full support and know they can always call on us to break through any barriers. We got a lot of work to do. We’re excited to do it.

Here is the video of the full event:
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